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It’s a post-and-run this week because we have visitors staying with us. So no time for photography and gardening this week. Instead, here are the flowers of Centaurea montana (perennial cornflower), which usually start to appear in May. Hopefully I will still have time to move some of the plants to new positions before that happens…when I eventually get back to the garden!
Ann Mackay: Inspired by Nature 
This sure does look like our American basket-flower (Centaurea americana), especially when its florets are a little more sparse than usual. I figured out that the bachelors’ buttons I was familiar with in the midwest is another species: Centaurea cyanus. It’s non-native but widespread here, while your C. montana is limited to our northern states.
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Yes, Linda, you can see how closely related C. americana and C. montana are. Centaurea cyanus is a native here, although now I think you’d be very unlikely to see it in the wild. (It is grown as a pretty garden annual and in wildflower mixes for bees.)
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That’s easily recognizable as a Centaurea, but not one I’m familiar with. Wikipedia notes that it’s endemic to Europe and “is widespread and common in the more southerly mountain ranges of Europe, but is rarer in the north.” On this side of the ocean we have Centaurea americana (recently recategorized as Plectocephalus americanus).
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Oh no, not another name change – and one that looks almost impossible to spell too! I wish that plant names weren’t always changing. It gets very confusing! (Centaurea montana is an easy garden plant here, so I can imagine that it would spread well in the wild when it’s in the right conditions.)
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Love the photo. I have some in my garden, new last year so I am hoping they do well this year.
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I was hoping to move some to a better position…hopefully I may still get time. If not, I may try saving some seeds to spread around. Hope yours does well!
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Mine are Centaurea montana ‘Purple Heart’ so have white outer flowerheads with a purple heart. They were very small last year and got overwhelmed by the geraniums, but they have grown throughout the winter months so I am hoping the flowers have a chance before the geraniums start to encroach on them!
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I looked up ‘Purple Heart’ – what a beauty!
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