Echinops ritro Veitch’s Blue

The Echinops ritro 'Veitch's Blue' is a beautiful improvement of the Globe Thistle. This lovely 'Veitch's Blue' Globe Thistle offers intensely blue, globular and spiky flowers throughout the summer, with slightly broader and less thorny foliage. Similar to its ancestors who are native to fallow lands and rocky garrigues, this plant is hardy, adapts well to difficult conditions, and adjusts its size according to the richness of the soil. This is an indestructible, very hardy perennial plant, a blessing for rock gardens and challenging slopes. It brings a touch of natural beauty to the garden and nourishes bees. Its flowers are also very attractive in fresh or dried bouquets.

Belonging to the large family of Asteraceae, the Echinops ritro grows spontaneously in uncultivated spaces and garrigues. It thrives in the sun, appreciates warmth, and tolerates dry and even rocky, limestone soils. Not demanding, it is also hardy and can self-seed. It is therefore the ally of holiday homes, gardens without gardeners, gardens without watering, and wildflower lovers. Horticulturists have selected various even more ornamental forms, including the lovely 'Veitch's Blue' variety.

This is a herbaceous perennial plant that develops channelled and ramified stems that can reach heights ranging from 25 cm (10in) to 1 m (3ft), depending on the richness of the soil. This plant bears deciduous leaves, with a tough appearance and a greenish-grey colour. They are alternate, sessile, and embracing. Their lamina is deeply incised, with slightly spiny edges and a downy, silver-grey undersurface. Heads of 4 to 5 cm (2 in) in diameter that contain numerous small inflorescences form at the top of the branching stems. These are perfectly cylindrical heads that deserve close observation to perceive their subtlety and delicacy. Initially bluish-green, the inflorescences seem to consist of multiple spikes at the beginning of flowering. Each spike is actually a bract that protects a tiny flower. These silver bracts release tiny tubular star-shaped flowers of a deep blue, sometimes approaching violet. Packed tightly together, the inflorescences form a cloud of small spheres that bring lightness to flowerbeds.

The Echinops ritro 'Veitch's Blue' is a versatile plant: it fits perfectly in wild and rustic spaces, but its silhouette, foliage, and flowers are also well-suited for graphic, contemporary, or mineral compositions. It is also an excellent candidate to bring a touch of whimsy to dry gardens during the summer. Its astonishingly blue flowers are stunning with all pastel or vibrant blooms. The possibilities for associations are endless, depending on each gardener's taste. We like to combine them with sedums, California poppies, gauras, and yarrows. Artemisias, Lychnis coronaria, and Euphorbia myrsinites will echo its silvery hues.