Echinops ritro Metallic Blue

For sheer architectural drama, few plants rival the Globe Thistle. Echinops ritro Metallic Blue produces perfectly spherical, golf-ball-sized flower heads in an intense, electric steel-blue — silver in bud, deepening to metallic blue as they open — on sturdy, upright stems with deeply cut, silver-green foliage that provides visual interest from early spring to the winter frosts.

Ultra-hardy (H7), drought-tolerant, thriving in poor soil, and outstanding for cutting fresh and drying. A magnet for bees and butterflies.

• Echinops ritro 'Metallic Blue' — Hardy Perennial (H7)
• Height: 90–120cm | Flowers: July–September
• Sow indoors February–April; surface sow lightly
• Full sun; poor, well-drained soil — do not over-feed
• Outstanding for cutting fresh and drying
• Outstanding bee and butterfly plant

Grow it with Eryngium Sea Holly and Agastache Liquorice Blue for a late-summer border of metallic blue, steel-blue, and violet that hums with bees from July to September.