Hi there tedhort, Excellent! I googled for the name you gave, and yes - that's the one :) Thank you so much for your help! Now I know how NOT to kill it lol :D Shanook.

You're absolutely right, and funny, I saw what looked like my leaves in a picture in Gardens West, but mine didn't have flowers yet, nor did the pic in GW. On reading the blog, she calls it "blue-eyed grass", which indeed is what GW called it. (And Google images also calls it "yellow-eyed grass"). So there you are! Now, I definitely wouldn't agree with ear-to-the-ground that it is "stately", but maybe in one or another of its locations in my garden it will take a more "stately" attitude... This is the later-in-the-day pic, where you can see that the flowers are now liked up in a row in each little pocket. clever little thing!

Thanks, I think you're right!

Thank you floral_uk. I know that Centaurea is a huge classification, but don't the flowers tend to be kind of fringy, like bachelor's button? This little guy (about 1/2 inch) is more star-shaped than knapweed? Edited to add: I'm in Western New York state, on the shore of Lake Ontario.