Bachelor’s button has been valued for thousands of years. Evidence from ancient Egypt suggests that its flowerheads were used for grave decorations, and it became a symbol of life and fertility. The ancient Greeks and Romans appreciated its vivid blue color and associated the plant with healing as seen in the myth of the centaur, Chiron, who was said to have used its leaves to treat wounds. In the Middle Ages bachelor buttons were cultivated in monastic herb gardens and infusions and tinctures were made for use as a tonic consumed to promote overall well-being and restore balance and health to the body.
The brilliant blue color of bachelor buttons has traditionally been associated with the Virgin Mary as a symbol of purity, humility, and heavenly grace and it represents her celestial role of Queen of Heaven. The appearance of bachelor’s buttons in the Christian art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, associates Mary’s comforting, nurturing attributes with the healing properties the plant. Photo Credit: Wikipedia
Also known as cornflower, bluebottle, bluet, and bluecap, this cool weather annual is a member of the aster family, Asteraceae, that also includes daisy, sunflower, and lettuce. It is native to Europe where it is now endangered in some areas due to habitat destruction, but was introduced into North America where it has done well and has become invasive in some areas because of its tendency to self seed. The narrow plants grow 1-3′ tall and have numerous gray-green branches and lanceolate gay-green leaves. The 1-1.5″ wide flowerheads are composed of many small ray flowers around a center of disc flowers and held together by an involucre of overlapped bracts. The flowers bloom from late spring throughout the summer in cool climates and are usually bright lavender blue but cultivars in pink, rosy red, and white are available. They are excellent cut flowers.
Bachelor buttons like full sun to partial shade and average, medium moist, well-drained soil. They are generally healthy but may suffer damage from white mold, rust, downy and powdery mildew, thread blight, and Southern blight. Propagation is by seed but plants resent transplanting.
The genus name, Centaurea, is from the Greek word κένταυρος (kentauros) meaning centaur and refers to the myth that a plant in this genus healed the centaur Chiron, a half-man- half horse creature of Greek mythology. The specific epithet, cyanus, is an old name for a dark blue substance and refers to the flower color.
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