Blue.............Or can be Pink or White

..................This is the pretty and simple Cornflower. I say simple but just look at the very centre of the flower.
There are a number of myths and legends connected to the Cornflower (Centaurea) - too many to tell them all. I think there are two I particularly favour:

1) The name was given in honour of a beautiful youth from Greek mythology who was extremely fond of the colour blue and whose name was Cyanus. He dressed in blue and draped himself in blue flowers. When the Goddess, Flora, found him dead in a field, she turned him into a Cornflower.

2)Queen Louise of Prussia was fleeing Berlin pursued by Napoleon forces. She hid her children in a field of cornflowers and kept them quiet by making wreaths from the flowers. Thus the flower became identified with Prussia and was the same colour as their soldiers uniforms.

After all that trivia, enjoy the flower!


Try on large