Spiky dramatic and highly exotic looking, eryngiums are well suited to dry conditions and generally an easy garden plant - as long as they are not on a spot that you will brush against. They are also excellent bee-friendly plants which flower for most of July and August providing nectar even on the hottest days then fade to leave you with stately seed-heads into autumn.

I grow:

the biennial e. giganeum (above) which grows about 80cm high but with giant flowering heads that with their multiple bracts reach to about 40cm across. I have sometimes counted as many as 10 bumblebees on a single plant.
perennial e. planum (below) which has smaller flowers that starte ice-green and mature to deep blue

Both attract a range of bumblebees but also some honeybees and butterflies.

Eryngiums