Posts
 | ||
Those same Cardoons following harvest, swollen with plump seeds, a bounty courtesy of Diana. Now being packed for the Gatehouse roadside stand, Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA. Click image to enlarge. Photograph 1 October 2021 |
Common Names: CARDOON, Artichoke Thistle, Texas Celery.
Botanical Name: Cynara cordunculus
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Asteraceae
Native Range: Mediterranean
Zone: USDA 07-9
Ht: 3'-6'
Spread: 2'-3'
Bloom time: Seasonal bloomer
Sun: Full sun
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Flower: Showy; Good cut; Good dried.
Noteworthy: The celery-like stalks may be blanched, harvested, steamed, or braised & eaten, but it is more often grown ornamentally in gardens outside of southern Europe, for attractive foliage and flowers.
The Royal Horticulture Society, London, has chosen the cardoon as one of the top plants of the last 200 years. They awarded it an A.G.M. in 1993.
Sowing: Begin in February, inside. Set out when all danger of frost is passed.
Botanical Name: Cynara cordunculus
Type: Herbaceous perennial
Family: Asteraceae
Native Range: Mediterranean
Zone: USDA 07-9
Ht: 3'-6'
Spread: 2'-3'
Bloom time: Seasonal bloomer
Sun: Full sun
Water: Medium
Maintenance: Low
Flower: Showy; Good cut; Good dried.
Noteworthy: The celery-like stalks may be blanched, harvested, steamed, or braised & eaten, but it is more often grown ornamentally in gardens outside of southern Europe, for attractive foliage and flowers.
The Royal Horticulture Society, London, has chosen the cardoon as one of the top plants of the last 200 years. They awarded it an A.G.M. in 1993.
Sowing: Begin in February, inside. Set out when all danger of frost is passed.
"The cardoon has found a special and perfect place in one garden, and in my heart. Two springs ago, I purchased two plants based solely on the recommendation of a respected fellow gardener who extolled it as a gorgeous perennial. It seemed like it would be the perfect 'something large and spectacular' for a particular area I had in mind. The cardoon is the ancestor of the artichoke and reportedly has been cultivated for 30,000 years (how do they know this?) The Cynara (both artichoke and cardoon) are edible thistles on a grand scale. The cardoon is often mistakenly identified as its kin the artichoke which is much better known.
The word cinara is derived from cinis (ash), perhaps because of the cardoon's grayish-blue color, or maybe ashes were the best fertilizer for it. The word became bastardized to cynara.
Pliny, a Roman philosopher living around 100 A.D. claimed that a small plot of cardoon would bring in a large annual income because the vegetable was so highly prized in Rome that it was found only on the tables of the very rich. Indeed cardoon continues as a staple Italian vegetable and in Italian cookbooks you can find recipes for 'bagna cauda' which is a hot garlic-anchovy dipping sauce. Tender cardoons and other Mediterranean vegetables are prepared and served with it.
It is not surprising then that the cardoon was introduced to the United States in the 1920s by immigrant Italian farmers. It is thought to originate in Sicily and North Africa. Although I would no more think of eating my cardoon than my cat, this plant does hold high culinary interest in parts of Europe.
As a fabulous perennial, the cardoon is a really beautiful and dramatic plant. It fills a hot rather arid area of our garden which needed something to catch the eye. And catch the eye it does! Show-stopping, huge, blue-gray deeply toothed foliage is its main attraction, until mid-summer when it sends skyward its flower stalks. The term 'flower stalk' seems too delicate to describe the sturdy 1-inch thick stems the plant rockets up to support the ultra-large thistle-heads encased in scaly armor. The bold unusually colored foliage of this plant can grow 4 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide and the thistle heads are thrust up from that. When the thistles finally open, they are a beautiful soft bluish lavender that the bees and hummingbirds find very attractive. The plant makes a nice show from late spring all the way through October. The flower heads can be lopped off after they start to dry and before the seed matures. They are striking in arrangements.
For several months of unique color and drama in your garden, you might consider the drought-tolerant magnificent cardoon as a candidate for a generous area with poor soil and full sun."
Patricia Lundquist, author, and illustrator. From The Social Gardener, the Journal of the Whatcom Horticultural Society. Summer 2003. Pg 12-14.
Pliny, a Roman philosopher living around 100 A.D. claimed that a small plot of cardoon would bring in a large annual income because the vegetable was so highly prized in Rome that it was found only on the tables of the very rich. Indeed cardoon continues as a staple Italian vegetable and in Italian cookbooks you can find recipes for 'bagna cauda' which is a hot garlic-anchovy dipping sauce. Tender cardoons and other Mediterranean vegetables are prepared and served with it.
It is not surprising then that the cardoon was introduced to the United States in the 1920s by immigrant Italian farmers. It is thought to originate in Sicily and North Africa. Although I would no more think of eating my cardoon than my cat, this plant does hold high culinary interest in parts of Europe.
As a fabulous perennial, the cardoon is a really beautiful and dramatic plant. It fills a hot rather arid area of our garden which needed something to catch the eye. And catch the eye it does! Show-stopping, huge, blue-gray deeply toothed foliage is its main attraction, until mid-summer when it sends skyward its flower stalks. The term 'flower stalk' seems too delicate to describe the sturdy 1-inch thick stems the plant rockets up to support the ultra-large thistle-heads encased in scaly armor. The bold unusually colored foliage of this plant can grow 4 to 8 feet tall and 4 to 5 feet wide and the thistle heads are thrust up from that. When the thistles finally open, they are a beautiful soft bluish lavender that the bees and hummingbirds find very attractive. The plant makes a nice show from late spring all the way through October. The flower heads can be lopped off after they start to dry and before the seed matures. They are striking in arrangements.
For several months of unique color and drama in your garden, you might consider the drought-tolerant magnificent cardoon as a candidate for a generous area with poor soil and full sun."
Patricia Lundquist, author, and illustrator. From The Social Gardener, the Journal of the Whatcom Horticultural Society. Summer 2003. Pg 12-14.
 |
In case you'd like this deer-resistant drama queen in your life, there are fat seeds of the Shaw Island cardoon, happily adjusted to our USDA Z- 8b available at the Gatehouse shed, Reefnet Bay Road, Shaw Island, San Juan Archipelago, WA. |
No comments:
Post a Comment