In a Vase- Eryngium Bourgatii

Its not Monday...but I wanted to showcase this one filled with my 'dead-headings' from today.

To cut these I now read was perhaps a mistake as they make a bold statement in the winter...but I wanted to give the plant the opportunity to bulk up.  Also as the flowers are over, and fully fertilized by the many visiting bees and hover flies, they made a good pollen free and low allergen arrangement.  The lovely blue cloisonne vase is one of a pair, the other is now back with Jenny in Spain. 

Eryngium Bourgatii: Mediterranean Sea Holly could well be growing wild not far from where Jenny lives, and maybe she will find some to make a similar arrangement.  It was first collected from the Pyrenees and named then...I wonder whether we saw some of these when Jenny and I took three days to cross the Pyrenees.

The Erygiums have reveled in the hot sun and not suffered for the lack of rain.  I particularly like the variegated foliage of Eryngium Bourgatii , its one of the plants I bought at the Bishop's Palace Rare Plant Fair last August.  Up close the bracts are turning silver grey...and believe me, gloves are certainly necessary.  Normally I avoid prickly plants but just have to protect myself as I love the form of these plants, and they are such an attraction to insects in the garden.

I do have another Eryngium Planum Tetre Petra in the garden, as shown in the foreground below.  Behind it next to Geranium Rozanne is Erigium Bourgatii.