{"id":4593,"date":"2015-08-14T08:42:05","date_gmt":"2015-08-14T15:42:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=4593"},"modified":"2015-08-11T05:34:30","modified_gmt":"2015-08-11T12:34:30","slug":"growing-ghosts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/growing-ghosts\/","title":{"rendered":"Growing Ghosts &#8211; Eryngium giganteum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3474\/3746144476_df2a839a87.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"375\" height=\"500\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Mrs Willmott a formidable gardener is said to have secretly sown seeds in other peoples garden, an idea that appeals to me as a guerrilla gardener. Growing Eryngiums that look spooky in the moonlight is how they got the name Mrs Willmott&#8217;s ghost plants.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Growing Tips<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Sea Holly or Eryngium giganteum is an odd looking perennial with prickly, silvery-grey bracts under steel-blue cones.<\/li>\n<li>Wonderful for dried arrangements, especially at Christmas.<\/li>\n<li>Happy in sandy dry soils this draught tolerant plant has spikey growth can deter unwanted visitors! I have a few scars this year to prove it. Suitable for exposed coastal planting<\/li>\n<li>An architectural plant that attracts wildlife to feed or nest.<\/li>\n<li>Suitable for container growing; \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ideal as a \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcstand out\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plant.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Raising Plants<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Surface sow and just cover with vermiculite. Do not exclude light. Germination can be slow.<\/li>\n<li>Sow in February to get a bit of frost or place in a refrigerator (not freezer) for 3-6 weeks.<\/li>\n<li>Transplant to a cold frame then grow on in full sun<\/li>\n<li>Prefers a rich, light, well drained soil.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Chiltern Seeds have 18 different varieties of seed or try <a href=\"http:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=2283&amp;awinaffid=81944&amp;clickref=&amp;p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.thompson-morgan.com\/plants1\/search.html?section=all&amp;search=eryngium\"> Eryingyum from Thompson &amp; Morgan <\/a><\/p>\n<p>Honesty seed heads look a bit ghostly once the seeds have gone and the coin shaped, white paper disc is left to reflect low winter light. If you want a &#8216;ghost of Christmas past&#8217; combine these two in a dry flower arrangement.<\/p>\n<p>Read <a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/environmental-gardening\/plants-for-dry-gardens\/\">Plants for dry gardens<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mrs Willmott a formidable gardener is said to have secretly sown seeds in other peoples garden, an idea that appeals to me as a guerrilla gardener. Growing Eryngiums that look spooky in the moonlight is how they got the name Mrs Willmott&#8217;s ghost plants. Growing Tips Sea Holly or Eryngium giganteum is an odd looking perennial with prickly, silvery-grey bracts under steel-blue cones. Wonderful for dried arrangements, especially at Christmas. Happy in sandy dry soils this draught tolerant plant has&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/flowers\/growing-ghosts\/\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,233],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-4593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flowers","category-growing-easy-plants","tag-seeds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4593\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}