Globularia trichosantha

Globularia trichosantha is part of a group of perennial plants or undershrubs called globularias, native to the dry and limestone slopes of southern Europe. This is one of the most ornamental, with its carpeting vegetation that persists in winter and its wonderful summer flowering in small, very bright blue pompoms. Its natural habitat consists of rocky and arid steppes where cold winters occur. In the garden, choose a very sunny rockery, a stony embankment, the top of a retaining wall, or the edge of a gravel bed for this pretty perennial.

Globularia trichosantha belongs to the Plantaginaceae family. It is native to western Turkey (Mount Taurus), Bulgaria, Crimea and Syria, as well as the Caucasus, including its Russian foothills. It is found in dry meadows, embankments, and rocky to stony limestone soils. This evergreen species is both highly resistant to cold and well-adapted to summer drought.

It is a low-growing perennial herbaceous plant that spreads through stolons, forming large ground-covering mats over time. It develops small rosettes where spatulate-shaped oval and leathery leaves of a glossy dark green colour persist in winter. Flowering occurs from June to August, depending on the climate. Rosettes of leaves emerge from slender flower stems, 20cm (8in) tall, covered with very small pointed leaves. Solitary inflorescences form at the end of its stems, organised in small almost spherical heads, 2cm (1in) in diameter, characteristic of the Globularia genus. Surrounded by pointed bracts, each head is composed of hundreds of tiny shiny blue tubular flowers. The flowers in the centre of the head are darker blue when they open, making it appear bicolour, in sky-blue and ultramarine blue. After pollination by insects, the flowers give way to fruits called achenes, surrounded by persistent calyxes. This plant sometimes self-seeds in light soils.

Globularia trichosantha is a sun-loving plant for rocky soil. It will fully play its role on unrewarding embankments and in rock gardens. It is also an excellent plant for dry gardens without irrigation. It can be planted with other perennials that require the same growing conditions: Dianthus gratianopolitanus and perennial Geranium sanguineum, classic but unbeatable in this use. You can also grow it with other small cushion-forming plants, such as creeping baby's breath, Aethionema 'Warley Ruber', Anthemis carpatica 'Karpatenschnee', or fleabane (Erigeron karvinskianus). It can also be planted in an alpine garden or in pots, containers, and flower boxes.