Blue Star Sea Holly
SKU: AM014457
Shipping:
No longer available this season.
Overview
'Blue Star' Sea Holly has unique, electric-blue flowers with feathered petals that surround erect, thimble-like center cones. Delivering loads of exotic texture and color to the garden througout the summer season, the blooms can be cut and enjoyed in arrangements, both fresh and dried. Deer resistant and tolerant of poor, sandy soils. (Erynigium alpinum)
key features
Botanical Name
Eryngium alpinum Blue Star
Growing Zones
Zone 5, Zone 6, Zone 7, Zone 8
Advantages
Deer Resistant, Rabbit Resistant, Cut Flowers, Dried Flowers, Rock Gardens
Light Requirements
Full Sun
Mature Height
30-36" tall
Bloom Time
Early to late summer
SKU
AM014457
Description
Here's a fascinating plant, new to us this year. But hardly new. Most Sea Hollies grow along the Mediterranean coast as striking blue wildflowers, and they have been admired for centures. Even Plutarch wrote about this plant in ancient Rome! One of the species also grows in the Alps, and that one is Erynigium alpinum, or Alpine Sea Holly. Our selection is from that species, and said to be one of the bluest of them all.
The great British gardener of the Edwardian period, William Robinson, the first plant expert who was seriously interested in wildflowers, said Sea Holly was his all-time favorite. Stunned by the blue coloring, rare in flowers, he wrote that Sea Holly was not surpassed in beauty by any plant! Quite an endorsement.For good growth, Sea Holly requires full sun and a gritty, fast-draining soil, so site yours carefully. The flowers arise in mid-summer from plants about 30 tall, and by the way, both the leaves and roots are edible.
