There is a new foliage plant that’s sweeping the south in popularity. It’s a perennial that we’ve been growing at MSU’s Truck Crops Experiment Station for a couple of years. It’s called Cardoon.
So, what is a Cardoon? Botanically speaking it’s Cynara cardunculus and it’s related to the globe artichoke. The Royal Horticultural Society named cardoon as one of the top plants of the last 200 years.
Cardoon produces six foot tall spikes of bloom in late summer, then the plant dies to the ground for a rest period and returns to begin growing again. It likes deep, fertile soils and once established can take temperatures in the teens.
Cardoon makes a dramatic statement in the flower border with its long arching, deeply-serrated, soft-gray foliage.
Notice how it’s being used at NorthPark Mall in Jackson, Mississippi with other cool season color like Amazon dianthus. Here, it’s being used at the entrance to a new subdivision where it’s combined with flowering kale and Amazon dianthus.
The plant’s young, tender stems may be eaten like celery, its young leaves eaten like spinach and the main root tastes great when sautéed in butter. If you’re into cooking, there are plenty of recipes on the web.
I hope you’ll get on the bandwagon and give Cardoon a try. I’m Norman Winter for Southern Gardening.