Tall Blue Bachelor's Button "Blue Coneflower" (Centaurea cyanus) Seeds – Classic Vivid Blue Blooms, Pollinator Favorite, Great for Cutting & Meadows

Minimum: 100+ Seeds

The Bachelor's Button Everyone Remembers

Few blues in the garden match this one, an electric, almost unnatural shade that's made cornflower a cutting garden and meadow staple for generations. Tall Blue Cornflower, also called bachelor's button, sends up slender, branching stems topped with fringed, vivid blue blooms that bees and butterflies visit constantly through summer. It's an old-fashioned cottage garden classic, easy from seed and just as at home naturalized in a wildflower meadow as lined up in neat cutting garden rows.

Who Grows Tall Blue Cornflower?
The cutting garden grower wanting reliable, vivid blue stems for summer bouquets.
The pollinator gardener wanting a strong nectar source for bees and butterflies.
The cottage garden gardener wanting an easy, old-fashioned classic bloom.
The wildflower meadow gardener wanting a fast, self-seeding naturalizing annual.

What This Classic Cutting Garden Annual Actually Is
Centaurea cyanus, called cornflower or bachelor's button, is a fast-growing annual in the aster family, native to Europe and long naturalized across North America as both a garden flower and field wildflower. Plants grow upright and branching, 2 to 3 feet tall in tall varieties, with narrow, grayish-green leaves and fringed, thistle-like flowers in an intense, saturated blue, though pink and white forms occur. Blooms appear over an extended period from early to late summer, especially with regular deadheading, and are highly attractive to bees, butterflies, and other pollinators. The flowers also dry well, retaining much of their blue color, making them popular in dried arrangements and potpourri. Grown as a hardy annual, it tolerates light frost and often self-seeds readily where conditions allow.

In the Garden & Vase

• Fresh cut flowers: Cut stems as blooms open for long-lasting, vivid blue additions to bouquets.
• Dried flower crafts: Harvest and dry blooms for wreaths, potpourri, or lasting dried arrangements.
• Wildflower meadow planting: Direct sow into a meadow mix for a naturalizing, self-seeding patch.
• Pollinator border: Plant in a sunny bed to draw bees and butterflies through summer.
• Cottage garden classic: Mix into an informal cottage-style bed for old-fashioned charm.
• Cut-and-come-again crop: Deadhead regularly to extend bloom and maximize cut flower production.

Growing Tall Blue Cornflower Seeds

• Start method: Direct sow outdoors in early spring, as soon as soil can be worked; tolerates light frost.
• Germination: Sprouts in 7-14 days.
• Soil temperature: Germinates well in cool soil, tolerating temps many annuals cannot.
• Spacing: Space plants 8-12 inches apart for branching, bushy growth.
• Sunlight: Full sun.
• Soil: Tolerates poor, average soil; avoid rich ground, which causes weak, floppy stems.
• Watering: Moderate water; established plants tolerate drought.
• Support: Taller plantings may benefit from staking or grow-through netting in windy sites.
• Deadheading: Remove spent blooms regularly to extend flowering well into late summer.
• Succession sowing: Sow every few weeks through spring for a continuous cut flower supply.
• Self-seeding: Reseeds readily where left to go to seed, naturalizing in meadow-style plantings.
• Hardiness: Grown as a hardy annual, tolerating light frost; not perennial.

Before You Close This Page
This is the classic blue that cottage gardens and cutting gardens have relied on for generations. Tall Blue Cornflower delivers vivid, saturated blooms on branching stems all summer, drawing bees and butterflies while filling vases and drying beautifully for crafts. It's genuinely easy from seed, self-seeds where welcome, and works equally well massed in a meadow or grown in neat cutting rows. Grow the bachelor's button that's stayed a garden favorite because it never stops delivering.