Catananche

The Catananche or Cupidone is a beautiful perennial that thrives in dry soil and offers a multitude of small, scale-like flowers in a vibrant lavender-blue colour on Catananche caerulea, or occasionally white. This small plant belongs to the Asteraceae family and grows spontaneously in the Mediterranean. It is not very long-lasting in heavy and fertile soil, but it easily self-seeds in light and rocky soil. We appreciate its rustic habit, its villous grey-green leaves, and its willingness to bloom for weeks in unforgiving soil without a drop of water. It is an excellent alternative to the mountain cornflower in a Mediterranean garden, adding a wild touch to perennial beds, rockeries, and slopes. The Cupidone thrives in poor, rocky, and limestone soil and tolerates sea spray very well. Its best companions are thistles, Californian poppies, and ornamental garlic.