3 tips on how to grow Centaurea

The deep blues and reds of this spunky flower and its thistle-like texture make it a great mixer with all the other hues in your flower bed. These tips will help you successfully grow and care for your Centaurea.

They may have humble origins as European wildflowers, but Centaurea add character to any garden. The bushy, somewhat spreading plants produce thistle-like blossoms for weeks in midsummer, often continuing into fall if flowers are cut regularly.
The best ones for the garden produce rosy purple or deep-blue flowers that pair beautifully with yellow-flowering perennials, such as Coreopsis, Rudbeckia and Yarrow.

One thing you need to keep in mind: You need to snip old flowers before they go to seed! No problem as they are lovely features in Bouwuts and flower arrangements.

Early in spring, you can buy Centaureas in containers from garden centres or as bare-root specimens from mail-order catalogues.

• Plant them in well-worked garden soil about two weeks before your last frost date.
• Set them 60 centimetres apart and spread an eight-centimetre-thick layer of organic mulch around each plant to suppress weeds.
• Once flowering begins, gather cut blossoms for bouquets every few days or deadhead plants weekly to keep the new flower buds coming.
• Centaureas grow so vigorously that their crowns become crowded in two or three seasons. In early fall or early spring, dig up plants, cut away and dispose of the old crowns and reset divisions at the same depth at which they previously grew.
• These virtually pest-free plants are drought resistant, but it's best to site them in well-drained soil, because wet soil in winter leads to root rot.

These are wildflowers with personality as you will see. Pick and choose from these types for your yard design:

• ‘Persian Cornflower’ has fringed blossoms rising on 0.6 metre stems above woolly, gray-green foliage. Cut them soon after the buds open, and they'll keep in a vase for a week or more.
• 'Steenbergii' features a soft white centre in each blossom, which gives it a delicate look. 'John Coutts', has a light fragrance in addition to five to eight-centimetre wide rose-pink flowers atop 45 centimetre stems.
• 'John Coutts' is a blue-flowering Centaurea mountain blue also called Perennial Cornflower or Perennial Bachelor's Buttons, is an energetic spreader in cool gardens and should be considered invasive. However, hot summers suppress its growth, so it is definitely worthy of garden space in warmer regions.

There’s nothing like a scattering of blues and deep reds in your yard and the textures that Centaurea contributes. Follow these tips and you’ll this stunning addition to your garden will thrive.