Centaurea cyanus

A jolly blue flowered annual which is sometimes found growing wild in cornfields. The plant has a wiry green stem with a flower head that looks a bit like a flattened fluffy powder puff, with layers of petals around a darker heart. The foliage itself has slim lance shaped leaves. It will flower from late spring until midsummer and is at its best in a natural setting, growing amongst grasses or other similar plants, where it bends and sways in the breeze amongst a scattering of its kind, rather than as a formal close planted array. The popular name "Bachelor's buttons" refers to its use in Victorian times as a means, for gentlemen, of signalling their single status. This stands around 80cm (2ft 6in) high with a 15cm (6in) spread.