I have always felt that having a garden is like having a good and loyal friend. – C.Z. Guest
Do you love gardens? Of course, everyone is fond of gardens. I feel a garden is like a free outdoor restaurant that is operated to provide healthy, balanced meals for insects. Gardens make our life wonderful by connecting us with nature. Ask me what it takes to make your garden your loyal friend and my answer would be just a little bit of care, commitment, patience, and hard work. But why am I talking about gardens today? In today’s busy and stressful life, we have forgotten to connect ourselves with nature. We have become so occupied with this who earns more competition and taking everything for granted. It is important to connect our body, spirit with nature which reminds us of our dependence on the latter. It is equally important to acquire knowledge of what kind of flowers need to grow to create a bold statement in your garden. One of those flowers can be CORNFLOWER.
CORNFLOWER
- Originally native from the Europe, a cornflower (Centaurea cyanus), is a common wildflower that has been cultivated as a garden flower for centuries. Cornflowers are often referred to by their nickname, “bachelor’s button” due to an old practice when men wore a cornflower in a buttonhole of their suit, indicating they are in love. It has soft, frilly double blossoms and delicate gray-green feather foliage which can be generally found in stunning blue color.
- It has many associations around the world. It is the national flower of Estonia, representing the Estonian political party, and a symbol for social liberalism with the Swedish National Party. Isn’t it remarkable?
- They are annual plants which generally grows from late spring to early summer and reach up to 30–90 cm (1–3 feet) tall.
- It produces flowery head that are surrounded by bracts. These flower heads have blue, pink, or white rays that allures insects like butterflies.
Use of CORNFLOWER
- I remember the first time I got familiar with its name, I misunderstood it as edible corn. LOL!! They are one of the few true blue flowers that are edible, imparting a sweet cucumber-like taste. The fresh and young petals can be used with a salad to add a decorative look in the arrangement of food.
- CORNFLOWER TEA: put 1 tablespoon of flowers in a cup of hot water. Let the water boil for 10 minutes and strain. You can have it before a meal to improve appetite and digestion.
- How can we forget its medicinal use? It delivers ample amount of benefits due to its anti-inflammatory, toning, anti-rheumatic properties.
- The flowers are generally mixed with other medicinal herbs so that it can be used as a weed for countless ailments such as conjunctivitis, constipation, badly healing wounds, fever, headache , indigestion etc.
- One of the most amazing thing I found was cornflower also allows us to use its ingredients to make blue flower tincture. The tincture should be especially helpful in restlessness, nervousness, stress times. (Confirm your doctor or herbalist beforehand).
GROWING CORNFLOWERS in GARDENS
In some countries, Cornflowers are on the endangered list of native plants due to its rapid disappearance in the wild. But thanks to gardeners, they have given it a chance to survive. You can sow these from late spring to early summer and also in winters.
- Cornflower is a member of the Asteracea family, which is a large and widespread group of plants that includes sunflowers or daisies.
- Like them it prefers sunny locations, can tolerate poor soil, yet prefer rich loamy garden soil that has been enriched with phosphorus, which renders an extra boost to flowering plants In the garden, but avoid nutrient-rich soil.
- Here comes water, keep the soil moist with water. Avoid overwatering.
- Keep cutting faded flowers regularly to enjoy summer flower for a long time, because it constantly shoot new flowers.
Cornflowers can become a great choice for your gardens and also a small step towards environment protection. Our mother earth is going through a very tough situation. Who is responsible for this situation? We, the entire human race. We are destroying our environment deliberately or indeliberately without even realizing once about its consequences. What we are going through today is one of its repercussions. Now we have to act very smart and plan something to sustain what we still have. Think about our future generation and take a small step.
Make future GREEN
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