It’s easy to grow your own flowers from seed. Here’s beautiful flowers, growing information & seed collections for gifts.
COUNTRY GARDEN SEED SHOP
Echinops ritro
Perennial Echinops are hardy vigorous plants with strong stems, prickly grey-green foliage and plenty of beautiful globe shaped violet blue flowers. The Globe Thistle's flowers are striking in the garden where their colour and form provide contrast to the more usual mounds and spires of summer flowers. Excellent for wildlife. Attracts Bees, Butterflies and Ladybirds. Excellent Cut Flower.
Echinops are brilliant plants for beginners because they are very easy to grow and super hardy. They provide a good show in the garden, they are full of nectar for insects and to top it all produce masses of flowers for picking. What's more they are perennial. Cut the stems and foliage back after flowering, give them a good mulch of organic matter and they'll regrow to flower again.
| Genus | Echinops ritro |
| CommonName | Globe Thistle |
| Plant Type | Hardy Perennial. Cut Flower. |
| Height & Spread | 60-90cm tall x 60-90cm wide (2-3 feet tall x 2-3 feet spread) |
| Sow Seeds | Sow in moist compost in a deep tray or modules indoors in spring or autumn. Echinops seeds need light to germinate so cover with a layer of vermiculite. At 18°C to 21°C Echinops will germinate in 10 to 14 days. Allow seedlings to grow until well established then pot on into 9cm pots and grow on until it's warm outdoors. |
| Plant Out | Plant out after the last frosts from May onwards. Once plants are established they are hardy all year round to minus 20°C. |
| Conditions Required | Echinops prefers well drained soil and a sunny spot. Water thoroughly in dry spells and dead head to prevent self-seeding and encourage flower production. |
| Flower Production | Masses of blooms produced from July to September. Echinops flowers in the first year, four months after sowing the seeds. Deadhead and feed regularly to keep the flowers going. |
| Picking | For cut flowers pick regularly to encourage repeat flowering. It's best to pick early in the morning or in the cool evening and stand them in deep water for a few hours before arranging. Long lasting cut flower and can be dried too. |
| Planting Combinations | Echinops are some of the easiest and best perennial flowers that you can grow. You will be amazed at how many flowers are produced. They make a great show on their own and with other summer flowering perennials such as Achillea, Eryngium, Agastache and shrub roses in a traditional herbaceous border. |