Cardoon Plants
Also known as the artichoke thistle it really does look spectacular and can be grown in your vegetable or ornamental garden.
A Victorian favourite, when it was blanched and eaten a bit like celery, now it tends to be grown more for its appearance, although we understand it is still popular in Italy and France as a vegetable.
Cardoons look a lot like artichokes plants in appearance but they produce a much more ornate bright pink flower head which the bees and pollinating insects love. The stems of the cardoon plant, which are the part you eat, are silvery grey in appearance and delicious.
Cardoon plants can reach up to 6 feet tall so when planning to plant them give them a bit of room and you will be able to enjoy them for years. You could even use them as a summer wind break or screen.
Cardoon Plant 'Bianco Avorio'
A pretty vegetable widely cultivated in Victorian England and now enjoying a resurgence of popularity. It is related to the Globe Artichoke but it is the stem rather than the flower that is eaten.
Available from APPROXIMATELY late April / early May
Supplied as compost block-grown plants.
