Plant of the week

ERYNGIUM GIGANTEUM

Miss WillMott’s Ghost

THIS beautiful Asian sea holly grows as vicious as a thistle, but is spectacularly beautiful. Named after the legendary horticulturist — herself a notoriously prickly character — it comes up in early autumn to flower the following summer. In good soil, the plants grow a metre tall with branched stems ems bearing spiky y leaves. The stems and leaves are a gorgeous pale silvery grey, making them highly conspicuous in twilight. Distinctive flower heads appear in midsummer and resemble teasels or thistles. They’re irresistible to bees and other pollinators. Grow E. giganteum in any free-draining soil. The silver effect is more intense if the plants are in full sun. At summer’s end, self-seeding is copious but the baby plants are easy to hoe out or transplant. Miss Willmott liked to scatter the seed in other people’s gardens as a memento of her visit. That, and the shimmering grey-white of the plants at dusk gave rise to the name — Miss Willmott’s Ghost.