White Bachelor's Button (Centaurea cyanus) - white flowers, illustrated plant cardIllustration

White Bachelor's Button

Centaurea cyanus

White Bachelor's Button blooms from May through July.

Bloom calendar
Bloom time
May–Jul
checked
Hardiness
Zones 2–11
checked
Sun
Full sun
checked
Water
Low water
checked
Mature size
2.5 ft × 1 ft
checked
Type
Annual
house classification

Months here are Northern Hemisphere months; in the Southern Hemisphere, shift them by six months.

Growing White Bachelor's Button

Plant it in full sun. It prefers low water. It is hardy in USDA zones 2–11. Expect it to reach about 2.5 ft tall and 1 ft wide at maturity, in roughly 1 year (a house reading).

Pets

  • Not yet checked for pets.

Lists differ and none is complete. If a pet eats a plant and seems unwell, call a veterinarian or a pet poison helpline.

No toxicity note is on file for White Bachelor's Button. That is not a clearance: check its safety for people and pets before planting.

Verification
What was checked

Nine facts were checked against named botanical sources, each recorded beside the sources that carried it: mature height and spread, hardiness zones, sun, water, bloom months and color, the trait tags, and years to mature size, which rests on a recorded house rule where no publisher states one and is marked so. Soil, diseases, pests, toxicity and the plant's own names have not yet been read for this plant, and its trait tags are the ones a feature uses rather than every word a page prints. Each fact above carries its own mark. The planting, spacing and size sections are derived from these checked facts by a fixed rule, not checked separately, and the plant type is the library's own classification.

See the 10 sources it was checked against

When to plant White Bachelor's Button

Wait until all danger of frost has passed, then plant out White Bachelor's Button into warm soil; in most zones that means late spring. Planted then, it flowers from May to July.

Month-by-month timing for your zone is on the planting calendar; if you garden near zone 6, the middle of this plant's hardy range, start with zone 6 in April. Derived from the plant's category, zones and bloom months plus typical zone frost dates, not checked separately.

How big does White Bachelor's Button get?

Illustration of White Bachelor's Button drawn to scale beside an adult2.5 fttall5 ft 7 inan adult1 ftwide
About 2.5 ft tall and 1 ft wide at maturity: thigh-high beside an adult.

See White Bachelor's Button in a garden plan: the planner shows it in 3D beside everything else you add, growing toward this size over the years.

How far apart to plant White Bachelor's Button

Derived from the mature spread above by a fixed rule, not checked separately: spacing is the spread, center to center.

Space White Bachelor's Button about 1 ft apart, center to center, so each plant has room to reach its full width.

Plant them
1 ft apart
Per 10 sq ft
about 10
4 by 8 ft bed
about 32

Add White Bachelor's Button to a garden plan and the planner draws it at its full width, so you see the spacing before you buy.

Where these facts come from

White Bachelor's Button's height, spread, hardiness zones, sun, water, bloom months and color and trait tags were checked against 10 published sources on October 24, 2026. Each one is linked below with every fact it carried, which can include a fact this page still marks as not yet checked, because a source carrying a value is not the same as the value being held to the standard. Facts not in that list, and the planting, spacing and size sections, are not covered by these sources.

How the checking works, and what each standard covers, is on the verified plants page.

The Bachelor's Button group

One of 8 in the Bachelor's Button group. Same genus, similar care.

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Design a garden with this

Drop this plant onto a 3D plan, see how it fills in, and watch your whole garden bloom across the year.

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