Onopordum, the Scots Thistle

Each year we see the magnificent stems of Onopordum Acanthium rise from the silver over-wintering rosette. We carefully position the young plants each year so that they are near to the driveway where people walk up to the nursery. Many photographs have been taken of visitors standing beside a 2 metre high Scots' Thistle. But is it an impostor? If so, it is a very handsome one.

The silver cottony leaves are fiercely toothed and grow quickly into flat silver rosette in the first summer. It stays that way over the winter and in spring it begins to build.  In June the silver stem rises, the mace like buds opening to a glorious purple thistle head.

Onopordum is also called Cotton Thistle and comes from Southern Europe & Asia, but it looks magnificent growing in Scotland, and has long been naturalised and taken on the local accent.

Choose a sunny well drained spot and plant any time from April to August. One for adventurous gardeners yes, but easy and satisfying for beginners too.