Globe Thistle-Echinops ritro

The spiny, cobwebbed leaves provide interest from spring until the striking spherical blooms appear in late summer. Echinops is best at the back of a border and looks good combined with other late summer-flowering plants such as cardoon and echinacea or tall miscanthus grasses. It’s also well suited to growing in gravel gardens and wildlife areas as it’s a magnet for bees and other pollinating insects.