Cynara cardunculus (Cardoon)

‘An artichoke on steroids’ native to North West Africa and South West Europe. Enormous, beautiful, deeply toothed silvery leaves and massive bulbous purple flowers, like the kind of giant thistle you’d wrestle at Hogwarts, in Herbology. In chilly gardens it’s deciduous, and erupts with a wallop every spring up to 4ft, sometimes more. In warmer and more sheltered locations it will remain imperiously evergreen and the foliage looks especially primal and eerie on a frosty morning. Seriously architectural. Magic in an arid style or prairie planting scheme where its jagged-edged heft contrasts so well with the flimsier forms of hummocky grasses. The gas-flame fierce purpley-blue flowers that rise on 4ft stalks in summer have real stop-you-in-your-tracks impact, too, and bees love them. To grow well, Cynara does require plenty of light and deep, rich soil that’s well fed and well drained: the kind of soil you’d give your allotment, full of organics and the chewiest fibrous matter from your best compost heap.