CORNFLOWER - ROSY LILAC

CORNFLOWER - ROSY LILAC

Centaurea americana

Not only are cornflowers a delight in any garden, especially cottage

type gardens but they also can be used as food confetti in salads,

stirfries, and added to cakes and spring rolls. Cornflowers have

been used to add to summer drinks and herbal teas and even added

to cocktails.  They have a mild spicy flavour that goes well when

added to cheeses, dips and and sour cream.  Cornflowers have been

used as a herbal treatment for fever, constipation, chest congestion

and to treat water retention (odoema). The flowers can be made into

a tonic, bitter, and as a liver or gall-bladder stimulant. It has even been

used to treat conjunctivitis and other eye problems.

Plant the seeds about 1 cm deep in the garden or in pots and keep

moist until the seedlings are ready to transplanting. The seeds take

7-10 days to emerge and are easy to care for.  They are cold and

frost tolerant so can be planted anytime from mid autumn through to

mid or even late spring.  Cornflowers bloom from late spring through

summer and flowering is prolonged if trimmed regularly. Space them

20-25cm apart.

QTY 40 seeds