Globe Artichoke

The not so humble Globe artichoke a selected form of the Cardoon. Giant, luminous lavender, thistle like flowers project from sturdy, silver-white ribbed stems that themselves erupt from the centre of rosettes of great, sharply divided, lightly spined, white backed, silvery-grey leaves that promptly emerge from the soil after the first autumn rains. Like someone dropped a firework in your garden. The heart of the flower buds is edible but compared to the spectacle of the flowers you must sacrifice it seems rather irrelevant to me.Feed and water well while actively growing then let them dry out and aestivate over summer for best performance. A short lived perennial better replaced with fresh seedlings every few years.Unfortunately this plant is a declared plant in W.A. where it is illegal to grow or transport plants and seeds. Yet remarkably the flower heads are encountered frequently in grocery stores and the crop acceptable in market gardens but not so for us humble gardeners.