by Colleen Mart

Created on: July 06, 2010   Last Updated: July 08, 2010

Plant folklore:  Bachelor Buttons 

The sky-blue color of the Bachelor Button has made it a favorite flower in gardens since ancient times.  But it wasn’t always contained to just garden settings.  Also known as cornflowers, they grew wild in fields, especially cornfields.  For this reason the name cornflower was given to them.  Cornflowers became known by the name Bachelor Buttons when young men started to wear them as a prediction of the depth of love from their love interest.  It was said that if the flower faded quickly, the young lady was not in love with the wearer of the Bachelor Button.  The name Bachelor Button and Cornflower are used interchangeably. 

The botanical name for the Bachelor Button is Centaurea cyanus.  Cyanus simply means blue, however the origin of the name Centaurea is a much more interesting story.  The Greeks told of the Centaur, Chiron, a teacher and healer.  According to Greek folklore, Chiron would use a cornflower herbal remedy to heal those who had been poisoned by arrows tipped with the blood of Hydra, a repulsive, serpent-like beast who guarded the underwater entrance to the Greek underworld. 

In ancient Egypt, the Bachelor Button was said to aid the deceased Pharaohs in their journey into the underworld and to resurrect the deceased.  Folklore said that Osiris, the god of fertility and the god who brought agriculture to ancient Egypt, was repeatedly reanimated after his brother murdered him.  It was said that he would come back to life in the cornfields because of the cornflowers.  The folklore of the resurrecting power of Bachelor Buttons was so prevalent that wreaths of them were found near the tomb of Tutankhamun. 

Folklore claims that concoctions made from dried Bachelor Button flowers are cures for eye infections.  People with “Cornflower blue” eyes, are claimed to be lucky since it is believed that the striking blue color of their eyes, the same color of Bachelor Buttons, gives them exceptional eyesight.  Other folk remedies made from Cornflowers were said to be cures for certain fevers associated with pestilence. 

What causes the Bachelor Button to be as blue as the sky and where did they come from?   According to ancient folklore a cornfield had no way to show Heaven how much it appreciated the life giving rain and sun it received from the skies.  Heaven then said that since the cornfield could not rise into the sky, Heaven would come down to the cornfield.  The cornfield was soon full of flowers the color of the sky that waved to Heaven with every breeze. 

Another Bachelor Button folktale claims that Napoleon’s army chased Queen Louise of Prussia as she fled from them to Berlin with her children.  She and her children hid from Napoleon’s men in a cornfield where she kept her children quiet by weaving the flowers together into wreaths, thus saving their lives.  The Cornflower later became a symbol of Prussia. 

Whatever the truth behind the folklore surrounding Bachelor Buttons, they are a beautiful addition to any garden.

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