Eryngium planum Magical White Lagoon - Eryngium planum White Glitter seeds - Flat Sea Holly

Eryngium planum Magical White Lagoon® is a sea holly or blue thistle with captivating green and silvery tones. It is a deciduous perennial plant that thrives in dry, rocky, and poor soil, with spiny silver-green foliage. In summer, it produces green and silvery white cone-shaped flowers on its strong silver stems, radiating light and captivating reflections, nestled within bristly bracts. Over time, the colour intensifies and spreads along the stems. This plant has an architectural and highly decorative structure, perfect for sunny rockeries and borders. Its flowers also look beautiful in fresh or dried bouquets.

Eryngium planum (synonymous with Eryngium armatum), commonly known as the flat sea holly, belongs to the Apiaceae family, like celery and carrots. It is a perennial herbaceous plant with a root system originating from the mountains of central Europe. In the wild, it thrives in dry, sunny locations with well-drained gravelly or sandy soil.

With an upright and bushy habit, Magical White Lagoon quickly reaches around 90 cm in height and 40 cm in spread. Its base forms a rosette of petiolate basal leaves, ovate with heart-shaped bases, thick, toothed, silvery green, glossy, and evergreen in winter. Tall, silver-colored, branched stems, adorned with a few small spiny leaves without petioles, rise from the basal rosettes. Flowering occurs between June and August at the ends of these branches. The blooms appear as ovoid green inflorescences of 2 cm in diameter, composed of numerous tiny silvery white flowers, surrounded at the base by thin, metallic-reflecting, toothed bracts. This flowering phase attracts many pollinating insects. It readily self-seeds in light, well-drained soils.

Eryngium planum Magical White Lagoon® is a relatively short-lived perennial plant, especially in fertile, moist soil, but it self-seeds naturally in favourable conditions. It looks stunning paired with Lychnis coronaria, grasses (Stipa, Carex comans, Muhlenbergia), catmints, and shrubby salvias, but also complements well with roses, hollyhocks, love-in-a-mist, cosmos, or tall mulleins in dry gardens. A plant to admire in a cottage-style border, for the allure of its colour and somewhat futuristic look.