Echinops ritro

Welcome the bees and butterflies with beautiful, architectural Echinops ritro. Who can argue with a good-looking, resilient and low-maintenance plant that is also a huge hit with pollinators? Echinops ritro tackles multiple roles with gusto! This European native small globe thistle is always in the top ten list of must-have plants for wildlife gardens, but it’s also often in the garden designer’s top ten of plants that provide fabulous structure in the garden. In spring, it emerges with highly architectural jagged spikey leaves, sending up straight stems in summer topped with delightful spikey balls in a brilliant shade of metallic blue. Then, when autumn and winter set in, the dry flowerheads of Echinops ritro create interesting structure for the winter garden, being the perfect stage for a sparkling frost, and also make for great additions to indoor dried flower arrangements.

Echinops ritro is highly resilient and once established will cope with all sorts of tricky conditions – sandy soil, clay soil, a sun-baked, dry position. This small globe thistle is drought tolerant , winter hardy and requires very little in terms of maintenance, which is ideal if you don’t have a lot of time on your hands. It likes a sunny spot, but tolerates a little shade too, it handles coastal sites admirably. This makes it great in a gravel or dry Mediterranean scheme. Over time, the perennial Echinops ritro will form a clump which gradually grows larger each year. This means that every year, you can look forward to a bigger and better display of blooms. Globe thistles provides a superb contrast among other perennials and also dahlias.