Cornflower The Bride Seeds - Centaurea moschata

Centaurea moschata The Bride, with its beautifully scented, white, pompom-shaped flowers deserves to be planted more often in our gardens. Derived from sweet sultan, an annual species native to Iran, this variety flowers lengthily in summer in sunny beds and will allow you to create pretty wildflower bouquets, either fresh or dried. This magnificent white cornflower is perfect for filling gaps in flowerbeds. It can be directly sown in its final position, in spring or late summer, and is easy to grow in ordinary, moist to dry soil.

Originally from Western Asia, more precisely the Caucasus, Iran, Iraq and Turkey, Centaurea moschata (synonym Amberboa moschata), is not the best known of the genus. This annual or biennial plant is also known as 'Sweet Sultan' and contains aromatic substances reminiscent of amber in its flowers and seeds. It belongs to the family Asteraceae, as shown by the arrangement of its flowers into capitula.

The cultivar 'The Bride' was selected for its white flowers. This plant reaches 50-60 cm high when in bloom and grows into an erect clump of thin, leafy stems emerging from a mound of basal leaves. The latter are grey-green, fairly large, cut, lyre-shaped, 10 to 25 cm long, with serrated margins. The leaves on the stems are smaller and are divided into densely toothed, linear segments. Flowering takes place from July to September. The flower heads appear at the end of the stems and resemble fully double cornflowers, in the form of 5 to 8 cm wide pompons. They open from beautiful, scaly buds and are composed of a multitude of fertile and sterile florets that are cream-coloured in the centre and pure white at the edges. The mildly scented, nectar-rich and melliferous blooms attract many foraging insects. This plant is hardy down to -12 °C. In milder climates, you can sow them at the end of summer which allows for earlier flowering.

This sweet sultan, once found in many monastic gardens, has been cultivated for over 350 years, but is now mostly neglected by modern day gardeners. This medium-sized plant is particularly well suited to perennial borders and works wonders when sown randomly among other plants. Its airy, bright blooms will look good in a white garden or a wildflower meadow, making a good companion for other flowers. To this end, mix cornflower, grasses, sainfoin, ornamental onion, borage, common motherwort, corn marigold, Eschscholzia californica, cosmos and love-in-a-mist. It is easily sown in container displays.  It is also an excellent cut flower for dried flower or fresh bouquets.