Blue

I was delighted to find my cornflowers Centaurea cyanus finally flowering as I was getting a bit worried about them. I was somewhat less delighted to find myself utterly unable to get the flower both in focus and showing the right colour at the same time. So I decided to go for the abtract look. Yes, that's what it is. Abstract. Not rubbish. ;-)

This very beautiful flower was almost wiped out by herbicides in the 1970s but astonishingly still clings (very) tentatively to survival in the wild. They are also know as Batchelors Buttons since they last for a long time after being cut, making them ideal buttonholes. Though if your flower faded faster than expected, it meant the object of your affections did not return your love. The stems are so tough they would blunt sickles.

I was surprised to find that garden varieties of cornflowers are available in different colours. Why you would want a cornflower in anything other than this wonderful blue I don't know.