Globe artichokes

Artichokes are a gourmet vegetable and a delight to grow.

They have a delicate flavour with the ball-like flowerheads, which are picked and eaten before they have a chance to bloom. Although plants can be grown from seed, it is a long-winded process and it's easier to buy ready-rooted suckers to plant in the spring.

Globe artichokes are one of the tastiest vegetables you can grow, and are as much at home in the flower garden as they are in the vegetable patches. The globe artichoke is familiar enough as a vegetable, but how many people grow the plants in order to eat them? What starts off as a vegetable more than often ends up as a permanent garden resident?

Despite bulbs and flowering shrubs, late winter and spring can be a bleak time in the border. Without any herbaceous plants, borders look flat and empty, with large expanses of bare soil. Which is why globe artichokes (also known as cardoons) come in so useful. For the ornamental gardener, their very early production of multiple divided silver foliage is a real boon - in the words of that great writer on perennials, Graham Stuart Thomas, the “grandest of all silverlings”.

These stately plants, which grow to 1.5m x 1m (5ft x 3.25ft), can be grown in groups, 60cm (2ft) apart with 75cm (2.5ft) between rows, but as each produces up to 12 edible heads, one plant may be enough for your needs.

How to plant

Choose an open, sunny spot with well-drained soil. The architectural good looks of artichokes means the plants are perfect for the back of a border. Add plenty of well-rotted manure to the planting site and add horticultural grit to clay soil to improve drainage. Rake in some general fertiliser before planting, spreading it at a rate of 60g per sq m. Dig a hole bigger than the sucker and plant so that the soil mark on the stem sits at the same level as the surface of the soil. Fill the hole with soil, ensure the plant is held firmly and water well.

Caring and harvesting

Water plants well until established, ensuring that they don't dry out in hot weather. Cut back stems in autumn and protect the crown over winter with a thick mulch of bark chippings, straw or other material. In early spring add a mulch of well-rotted manure to help boost growth. In its first year, plants need to put all their energy into making growth, so remove any flowerheads as they form. In the second year, allow the edible heads to develop for harvesting in summer. Pick the terminal bud (the one at the top) first, when it's large and swollen, but before the scales have started to open - cut off with a few centimetres of stem attached. Pick the side buds when they have reached a decent size.

Country Gardener’s pick of the varieties

• Green Globe – a reliable variety that can produce fine heads for eating in late Summer, and thereafter every year. Not only a food provider but also a stunning architectural plant making it ideal for planting in the herbaceous border. Allow the 'heads' to flower for a stunning show. Recommended by the RHS to be an excellent attractant and nectar source for bees and other beneficial insects if allowed to 'go over' and flower.
• Purple Sicilian – this is a powerful globe artichoke variety with small, deep purple buds, which are excellent for eating raw, when young. Not frost hardy so a lot of care is needed in terms of protecting young plants.