Blue Boy is the cornflower blue gardeners hope for: saturated, clear, and set off by a finely fringed edge. The uniform 1–1¼-inch blooms hold that vivid color even when dried, making this organic bachelor button as useful for everlasting work as it is for fresh bouquets.
A hardy annual with an easygoing cottage-garden manner, Blue Boy threads beautifully through meadow plantings and cutting rows. Pollinators work the open flowers, and the edible petals bring a brilliant blue accent to plates and drinks.
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Botanical name: Centaurea cyanus
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Cultivar: Blue Boy
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Organic status: Certified organic seed
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Life cycle: Hardy annual
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Exposure: Full sun
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Sowing: Direct sow after the last frost or start indoors 4–6 weeks early
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Planting depth: 1/4 in.
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Final spacing: 6–9 in.
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Days to maturity: 65–75 days
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Seed unit: 1/32 oz.
Certified organic to USDA standards by Vermont Organic Farmers, LLC.
Harvest stems as the flowers open, leaving enough foliage to keep the plants branching, or gather fully open blooms for drying. Find more strong cutting varieties in our flower seed packets.
