Viewing post #85621 by bbrookrd

Thanks, that Sea Holly is Eryngium giganteum Miss Willmot's Ghost which is biennial but should self sow. It is new in my garden this year. I love all Eryngium. And I love how this one got its name. This is from an article I wrote for our local paper last summer about Eryngium

It was named after the noted English plant collector, Ellen Wilmott, 1858-1934, who apparently had a particular devotion to this prickly plant. To spread her passion, she would do a secretive Johnny Appleseed on all the gardens she visited around England by scattering the seeds of her beloved tall ghostly silvery leaved plant. She would be pleased to know that this plant was finally given Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit in 1993. It is a short lived biennial, but I suspect it reseeds itself in the garden, though hopefully does so politely. Regardless, I am game to grow it for its height of around 4 to 5 feet and for its marbled heart shaped foliage with pale greenish white cones surrounded by silver bracts. I think this drama queen would make a bold statement in my garden.