Globe Thistle Seeds - Echinops ritro

Quite common in the Mediterranean region, Echinops ritro or Globe Thistle is a robust perennial with a wonderful, rugged charm. In summer, it reveals small, prickly pompoms in an intense shade of azure blue over deeply cut, spiny, grey-green foliage. This heat and drought tolerant plant is highly adaptable, its mature size depending on the richness of the soil in which it grows. Practically indestructible, very hardy, it is a boon for gardens with poor soil, rock gardens and stony, dry slopes. Grow in full sun in dry, very well-drained soil.

Echinops ritro or Globe thistle belongs to the Asteraceae family. It is native to southern Europe where it occurs naturally in wasteland and stony garrigues. This deciduous perennial forms a 60 to 80 cm tall clump, with a spread of about 40 to 60 cm. Its foliage is prickly and deeply dissected, greyish-green in colour. The leaves have a white, woolly underside, characteristic to drought-tolerant plants. The globe-shaped flowers (capitulum) are intensely blue with a slight metallic sheen. The appear in May-June and repeat flower throughout the summer. Flowers are followed by attractive seed heads containing seeds called achenes.

Sow Globe Thistle in slightly wild flower beds, rock gardens or on stony slopes. It combines beautifully with ornamental grasses such as Stipa tenuifolia or Mulhenbergia capillaris, catmint, pink love-in-a-mist, California poppies and mountain cornflowers. It is also an excellent cut flower for dried or fresh flower arrangements.