Re: Centaurea hypoleuca 'John Coutts'
Greetings,
According to the RHS Index of Garden Plants, Centaurea dealbata and Centaurea
hypoleuca are closely related. The cultivar most commonly seen in gardens is
C. hypoleuca 'John Coutts.' Both are perennial. There are excellent pictures
of both species on page 152 of Roger Phillips and Martyn Rix's book Perennials,
Volume II. C. hypoleuca is rated hardy to Zone 5 while C. dealbata is hardy to
Zone 3.
I have grown both of these from seed. They are simple warm germinators. Both
needed two years to produce flowers from seed. Neither was invasive in my Zone
7 garden. However, I did have a problem trying to contain Centaurea montana,
the perennial blue bachelor's button.
I felt that the dealbata had more of a purple undertone to it while the
hypoleuca was more a bright candy-cotton pink with a whitish center. The
hypoleuca had less petals and was more of a branched plant while the dealbata
had more substantial flowers and (in my eye) the petals were held more
upright. One other difference--the dealbata often had a "ruff" of leaves
surrounding the flower head, a feature absent in hypoleuca. C. dealbata is
available as seeds from Thompson and Morgan. For a photo see
http://www.hillier.hants.gov.uk/gallery/centaur.html
Seed of C. hypoleuca is available at
http://www.discoveredmonton.com/devonian/seedhper.html
Best,
Julie Finn
Zone 7 and 10
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