Blue Cornflower seeds for the garden that has decided it deserves better than the garden centre allows. The Blue Cornflower was treated as a nuisance by agriculture for centuries. It has since been vindicated.

Blue Cornflower is the clear-blue annual that was once considered a weed in cornfields and is now correctly recognised as exceptional. Each packet is hermetically vacuum-sealed -- removing the oxygen that causes standard paper seed packets to lose germination viability within approximately one year. State law requires a 3-year viability label on sealed packaging. NASA research on hermetic seed storage indicates viability of up to 10 years under proper conditions. Every packet is non-GMO and germination-tested at independent third-party labs before it earns its Japanese woodblock print artwork.

How to Grow Blue Cornflower from Seed

Sowing and Germination

Direct sow in spring or autumn. Cool season -- sow early.

Care and Harvest

Annual. Clear blue flowers excellent for cutting. Attracts bees and butterflies. Self-seeds.

Why Vacuum-Sealed Seeds Last Longer

Standard paper seed packets are permeable to oxygen and moisture -- the two primary causes of seed degradation. Most paper-packaged seeds begin losing germination viability after approximately one year, contributing to significant garden-industry waste: packets purchased, not planted, expired, discarded. Shido Seeds are hermetically vacuum-sealed. The packet does not expire quietly in a drawer. It waits.

About the Packaging

Every Shido seed packet is illustrated in the style of Japanese 1910s woodblock printing -- designed and drawn in-house by Chive, the Toronto ceramics studio that has been exhibiting at the Chelsea Flower Show in London every year and does not, as a matter of principle, sell to big-box retailers. Customers collect the packets as a series. This was not the original plan.