Echinops ritro 'Metallic Blue' Seeds
If you want to add drama, shape, and a touch of modern architecture to your garden, Echinops is essential. 'Metallic Blue' is a superior selection producing perfectly spherical, golf-ball-sized flower heads in a rich, intense shade of electric steel-blue.
Standing tall on sturdy, silver-white woolly stems, these "Globe Thistles" are tough as nails. They thrive in dry, poor soil and scorching sun, never needing staking. They are a magnet for bees during the day (often hosting 3 or 4 bees on a single globe) and look like glowing planets in the evening light. Best of all, they dry perfectly for winter decoration.
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🌿 Understanding the Plant
Echinops is a robust Hardy Perennial.
It dies back to the ground in winter and shoots up again every spring, forming a larger clump each year.
The "Second Flush": While mainly a summer flower, if you cut the plant right down to the ground immediately after the first flush of flowers fades in July/August, it will often produce a fresh crop of leaves and smaller blue flowers in late autumn.
Top Tip: This plant has a deep taproot, making it incredibly drought tolerant but very grumpy if moved. Plant it in its forever home while young.
🌱 Growing Guide: How to Sow and Grow
Echinops is easy to grow from seed but hates wet soil.
Germination:
Sow indoors from February to May, or outdoors in late spring. Surface sow onto compost and cover with a sprinkling of vermiculite. Keep warm (15-20°C). Germination takes 14-21 days.
Where to Sow:
They demand full sun. They thrive in poor, dry, sandy, or stony soil. Do not plant them in rich, manured soil or they will grow too fast, get floppy, and lose their metallic intensity.
Care While Growing:
Once established, ignore them! They don't need watering or feeding. In autumn, you can leave the seed heads on the plant to provide a winter silhouette and food for goldfinches.
📋 Plant Specifications
| Latin Name | Echinops ritro |
| Common Name | Globe Thistle 'Metallic Blue' |
| Hardiness | H7 (Very Hardy - to -20°C) |
| Light Required | Full Sun ☀️ |
| Height | ↕️ 90cm - 120cm |
| Spread | ↔️ 45cm |
| Spacing | 🌱 45cm apart |
| Great for | 🐝 Pollinator Magnet 🍂 Dried Flowers 🏗️ Architectural Shape 🏜️ Gravel Gardens |
| Seed Count | Approx. 50 seeds per packet |
🤝 Perfect Garden Companions
The spiky blue spheres need warmth or softness to balance them:
- 🍯 Rudbeckia 'Marmalade': The Colour Clash. The golden-orange daisies of Rudbeckia look incredible against the metallic blue of the Echinops. It’s a high-energy, late-summer combination.
- 🌾 Briza Maxima (Quaking Grass): Texture Contrast. The hard, rigid lines of the Globe Thistle are softened perfectly by the trembling, dangling lockets of the Quaking Grass.
📅 Sowing & Flowering Calendar
Sow in spring. Plants establish in Year 1 and flower fully from Year 2 onwards.
| Month | J | F | M | A | M | J | J | A | S | O | N | D |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sow Indoors | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | 🟢 | ||||||||
| Flowers (Yr 2+) | 🌸 | 🌸 | 🌸 | 🌸 |
🏆 Officially Recognised Excellence
This plant is a biodiversity hero. Echinops ritro is listed on the RHS Plants for Pollinators list and is widely considered one of the top plants for attracting bees and butterflies in the UK.
- Regular price
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£2.30 - Regular price
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- Sale price
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£2.30
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