Bachelor’s Button: “Black Boy"

My husband has always loved Bachelor's Buttons, also known as Cornflowers. They grow easily by seed, with little babysitting, and can create some amazing wildflower meadow vibes in any garden. When I first sowed these earlier in spring as directed, they came up right away...then we got some weird unseasonable gnarly cold temps, and about 2/3 of the huge amount that had sprouted disappeared. But never fear, these strong ones made it - and are over 3' tall at the approach to our garden gate, so much so I had to stake a few during some also unexpectedly windy days! But it was so worth it, with these purplish-black blooms, don't you think?

Now, the name is a bit of a trip, I know, but the varieties of cornflowers often end in the word 'boy', with 'blue boy' being one of the most common ones out there. The dark purple variety is a heirloom seed originating in the early 20th century, and was reported as being especially popular in catalogs in the years immediately following the Great Depression. This is just the first bloom on it, and as they are not far from the insanely popular Bee's Friend on the other side of the gate, we'll see very soon how the pollinators react to this one!