Cornflowers or bachelor's buttons. Centaurea dealbata. They are easy to grow as winter annuals (sow in fall and they overwinter as small plants). Walmart carries the seed dirt cheap. They also come in pink, white, burgundy and a dark, deep purple that's almost black. The foliage is a nice grey green color that sets off the flowers well. They are superb cut flowers. They don't need anything special- just sow the seeds in fall. The just like the open areas next to fields, and have been reseeding there- that's why you are noticing them there. Sometimes road crews plant them, and sometimes they are included in those wildflower mixes. Once they get going good, they will likely reseed for you if you don't mulch too heavily. Easy to ID and pull if they get out of hand, but i've never had issue with them reseeding too much.

Persian jewels aka nigella is another nice electric blue that has the same growth, season, size, etc - but ferny bright green foliage and a bonus of great seedpods when finished flowering. They 2 would look great together.

Tammy, thanks for your input! I did a search on these but they don't look like the flower I have seen. I'll have to take a photo of them and post. Lyle

I think I know what you mean, maybe its this?
Aster oblongifolius var. angustatus

This picture doesn't look very blue, but it looks most like the blue daisy flower I have seen.

Here is a link that might be useful: NC wildflowers

but most asters bloom late summer or fall (and some in the winter) so they shouldn't be blooming now.

The only 'electric' blue spring flowers I can think of are Bachelor's buttons (which look different up close than they do from a distance), Spiderwort, and Chicory (which I thought was only found in the mountains or up north).

No, chicory can grow here- i have some, but it's not blooming yet, and probably won't be for about a month. It's not as intense a blue as bachelor buttons, either- more of a soft wedgewood blue than electric. Best thing to do, Lyle is post a picture.

You know what's funny, one of my aromatic asters is blooming a little bit now. I haven't seen it do that before. That said, Lyle I don't think your flowers are asters.

We have the flowers around here too.. maybe flax? They're not bachelors buttons.

never thought of flax- they would fit the description though.

Don't farmers plant a blue colored flower as a cover crop ? I don't know which one it is though.

I was able to get excellent photos of these blue flowering plants last Friday. I didnt get a chance to upload them yet so I'll try and do that this evening when I get home from work. I can tell you that they are not cornflowers. The flower itself is actually 5-6 smaller flowers clustered around one central stem. Quite pretty. I want to dig some up but not sure if the side of the road is actually considered private property.

Lyle

OK! I have a LOVELY picture of this mysterious blue flower. Here it is, I hope the pic is not too large >

[IMG]http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y228/carolinasheller/DSCN1662.jpg[/IMG]

Lyle, I can't see your picture. Copy the link that's labelled HTML code (it begins with

Never mind, I was able to see the picture by leaving out the [IMG part. That plant is Centaurea montana, Mountain Bluet.

P.S. You're right, you did get an excellent picture of the flower. :)

My neighbor grows them in her front flower bed. They were actually the first thing that came to my mind but I never would have been able to name them.

Actually, i think it's a plain ol' batchelor button, centaurea dealbata. Some of them look like that. Mountain bluets are much bigger across- like 2-3" and they are hard to grow in this area- goodness knows i've tried repeatedly. If you let the batch buttons/cornflowers reseed a few generations they end up looking like this rather than the very double poms that you start with from cultivated seed. Mountain bluets also have this very distinct black edge to their scaling on the buds before they open up. The leaves are much broader and longer than the regular cornflower's, too. It's kind of like cornflower on steroids, but much more stretched out and elegant, and the centers are more pink. They do look very similar but take a look at this link, and see if the plant itself look like yours. You can see the black edge in that first shot of the flower. I'll look and see if i can find any shots of my gone wild cornflowers to compare. The ones at mordecai used to look just like yours, with the narrow foliage and small flowers, and were an annual, not perennial.

Here is a link that might be useful: cent. montana

I've got 'amethyst in snow' mountain bluets. They are white and purple, not blue. I've only had them since last fall. Is it the heat that does them in? Mine are in light shade, I hope they make it because they are so pretty!!!

That one is on that page i linked, and it's the first time i'd seen it. It is very pretty, though i'm partial to the blue, truthfully. I have tried them in all variants of shade and sun and the longest one that survived was in a spot that got about 4.5 hours of sun, most of it afternoon, but was shaded from the latest aft sun. I'd guess it got sun from 11 til about 3 or 4. It lived for nearly a year before dying, from late summer through winter and into early summer last year. I have tried the plants so many times from seeds, small plants, big plants, etc it isn't even funny. What's the definition of stupidity again? LOL I think the heat here just does them in. I'd love it if someone has been able to get them to thrive here and can post under what conditions.