The Beauty In A Giant

Giant Blazing Star

Giant Blazing Star with its weedy-looking branched stem has lateral branches and at the tip of each branch blooms a stunning yellow flower. The flower is star-shaped with five narrow pointed petals exhibiting yellow surfaces, each up to approximately 16” in length. The plant has capsule like fruits which contain the seeds.

Giant Blazing Star is a widespread plant found in a variety of soil conditions like sandy, rocky or even in ‘disturbed’ areas like along roadsides.

Bachelor’s Button

Bachelor’s Button is a small annual flowering plant growing 16-35” tall. It has grey-green stems, leaves that taper to a point like the head of a lance and flowers of an intense blue color.

The Bachelor’s Button is also commonly known as ‘cornflower’ because of its past where it often grew as a weed in crop fields. Years of herbicidal over use in England has made it an endangered species in its native habitat, England.

Through the introduction as an ornamental plant in gardens and a seed contaminant in crop seeds, the Bachelor’s Button (Cornflower) is found in many other parts of the world, including North America and Australia.

With the use of cultivars with different pastel colors, including pink and purple, has made the Cornflower a boom for the cut flower industry. The most common color variety is the ‘Blue Boy’ or ‘Blue Diadem’. White, pink, lavender and black (not quite black, rather a very dark maroon) are used but less commonly. Its flowering season is from June until August.

Some tea blends and herbal teas listed cornflower as an ingredient. It is famous in the ‘Lady Grey’ blend of Twinings. Not only is a beneficial in teas, its edible flower can be used to add color to salads. Taking it one step further, the extraction of an essence of cornflower is beneficial in treating eye infection and as a wash for tired eyes.

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