Corncockle Queen Mix seeds - Agrostemma githago

The Corncockle 'Queen' Mix brings together several forms of the wild corncockle in white, lilac and mauve, veined with purple, which seem to float above a very fine grey-green foliage. This annual for full sun has long stems, suitable for cutting. It naturally finds a place in flowering meadows, naturalistic borders or cottage gardens. It is an undemanding wildflower, very floriferous and full of charm.

Agrostemma githago belongs to the Caryophyllaceae family, like pinks. It is known by the names corncockle, corn campion, corn rose, crown-of-the-field or field pink. It is an annual species, sometimes biennial depending on the sowing date, which has disappeared from cereal fields but is widely naturalised on embankments, fallow land and roadsides.
The 'Queen Mix' brings together several horticultural selections of Agrostemma githago, offering a more varied colour palette than the wild purple-pink species. It includes white, soft pink, lilac and mauve flowers, often marked with fine darker veins in the centre.
Each plant forms an upright, flexible clump, arising from a fairly deep taproot. The fine and slightly branched stems rise from 60cm to 1m depending on the soil. Sown in spring, corncockle will flower about 3 months later. The foliage consists of opposite, very narrow, lanceolate, 4 to 8cm long, silvery grey-green leaves, covered with fine hairs which give the plant a silky appearance.
The funnel-shaped flowers open at the top of the stems or short branches. Each corolla measures 3 to 5cm in diameter, has five rounded, slightly overlapping petals, marked with darker streaks or lines converging towards a smaller, lighter centre. The elongated and pointed sepals envelop the flower bud like a sheath. The flowers are nectar-rich, much loved by bees and other pollinating insects. Flowering extends from May to August, sometimes until September with staggered sowings. The fruit is an ovoid, striped capsule, swollen like a small amphora. It contains about twenty black, rough, half-moon-shaped seeds.

Corncockle Queen Mix is mainly useful for a flowering meadow, a country border or a cottage garden. It can be slipped between ornamental grasses such as Briza maxima or light perennials. It also accompanies country annuals like cosmos 'Sensation Purity', Spanish love-in-a-mist 'Midnight Blue' or the elegant Knautia macedonica 'Melton Pastels'. Sown along a path or at the edge of the vegetable garden, this Queen Mix quickly forms a flowering ribbon that attracts pollinators.

The corncockle produces many seeds, which explains its ease of self-seeding and, in cereal crops, its long-standing reputation as a "weed". Caution: seeds and leaves contain saponins and other toxic substances; ingestion can be dangerous for humans and animals, particularly sheep and poultry. Therefore, avoid sowing corncockle in plots intended for fodder or pasture.