Cornflower Trailing Blue Carpet Seeds - Centaurea cyanoides

Centaurea cyanoides Trailing Blue Carpet

Centaurea cyanoides Trailing Blue Carpet belongs to the family Asteraceae. It is a cultivar derived from Centaurea cyanoides, an annual herbaceous plant native to Syria, Israel and that is also widespread in Cyprus. The plant grows spontaneously in degraded, arid zones such as garrigues and Mediterranean steppes. It forms in the space of one season, a dense, slightly mat-forming clump with tender stems, reaching 10 cm high and 45 cm wide, that bears very narrow, long, woolly, greyish-green leaves. It flowers from June to August, depending on the date of sowing, or earlier in milder climates. The inflorescences consist of flower heads, 2 cm across. The ligulate flowers (or the petals surrounding the centre) are toothed at their tips and are of very bright, medium-blue that is close to the hue of chicory flowers. The centre of the inflorescence is made up of purplish florets. The flowers are very melliferous and nectar-rich.

Cornflowers are enchanting in flowerbeds where they form remarkable patches of colour. The 'Trailing Blue Carpet' variety, a delightful descendant of the oriental cousin of the common cornflower, brings a fresh touch of new to our window boxes and rock gardens with its blue flowers. Sow it in wild-looking beds, in dry soils where it is beautiful combined with ornamental grasses such as Stipa tenuifolia or Muhlenbeckia capillaris, common poppies, with pink love-in-a-mist, California poppies, the surprising Callirhoe involucrata, or the prostrate mallow with its purplish-pink flowers. Little bright red carnations (Dianthus grationopolitanus) and basket of gold will go well with it in container displays.