Centaurea montana ~ Perennial Bachelor's Button, Mountain Bluet

Centaurea montana is a perennial from Europe. The Perennial Bachelor's Button has been in cultivation for a long time and there are any number of color forms and named varieties. The Mountain Bluet has gray foliage to 4" and flowers up to about a foot tall. Centaurea montana in the wild has lavender blue flowers, but the color forms range from true blue to white to pink to deep maroon and also comes with many bicolored flowers too. Our plantings have been in full sun to shade for much of the day. Centaurea montana blooms in Spring and Fall and will likely have a few flowers at almost any piont in the summer if the plants are watered and the spent flowers removed. Centaurea montana has survived temperatures into the low teens° F in our gardens without damage. Centaurea gymnocarpa is a food source for the adult Painted Lady Butterfly, California Common Ringlet, Mormon Metalmark, Umber Skipper Butterfly, Gray Hairstreak, Hedgerow Hairstreak, Great Purple Hairstreak, Cloudless Sulfur, White Checkered Skipper, Northern White Skipper, and the California Dogface Butterfly and is a great addition to the butterfly garden.