This giant thistle-like perennial takes the place of a shrub in the summer and early fall. It gets covered with globe-shaped bluish flowers on five- to six-foot stalks cloaked in silvery green thistle-like foliage. I’ve had the main plant of Echinops for twenty years or more. It has seeded around a bit, but not invasively.

My future plans for these plants are to keep them trimmed and tidy after they finish blooming and feed and water only as needed to try to control their exhuberant growth.