A dwarf cornflower, bushy at 30 to 50cm, bred in 1960 for gardeners who wanted the whole colour range without the height. The mix runs blue, deep maroon, raspberry, rose, pink, lavender and white, which is the widest palette in the family.
The compact habit is the point. It needs no staking, it does not lean after rain the way the tall Ball types do, and it will grow in a window box or a patio pot where a 90cm cornflower would be absurd. At the front of a border it makes low multicoloured mounds that hold their shape all season.
The trade-off is on the stem. The flowers are smaller than the tall varieties and the stems are short, so this is a plant for looking at rather than for the cutting patch; a small jug of informal posies is about as far as it goes. Self-sown seedlings keep the dwarf habit reasonably well, which is unusual and useful. It is about as easy as a hardy annual gets, which makes it a good one for a child's patch.
