Bachelor Button flower in the garden, I have been growing these ever since I was a little boy. Mother bought a Gurney seed packet for kids and this was one of the seeds in it.
The bachelor button flower grows around two feet tall with silvery foliage producing flowers of pink, white, blue, almost black, and all the hues in between. The plant-like cooler weather making them a short-lived annual, however, planted among other longer blooming annuals makes for a long-lasting show during the summer.
The name comes from Victorian men wearing these flowers in their lapels. The other name “cornflower” comes from the wild form of bachelor button growing in between the rows of corn plants and other grain. The settlers brought them over to America and were used for dried arrangements and adding spice to their foods. The flowers produce a clove-like flavor or make into a tea.
These plants were grown indoors and planted outside early withstanding temperatures in the mid-’20s.