I’m not up on my garden-flowers, so I don’t even know the name of this one, but Dad says he got it from the farm in the UP, where it had survived for years after active flower-gardening had ceased. To me, its spikiness seems very Victorian.
The Botanist just wandered by, and I quizzed him about the specimen. It’s a Centaurea spp., commonly called a knapweed if it’s pink/rose, and close cousin to another Centaurea, the Bachelor’s Button, also blue.
Now we know!