Marginals: Cynara cardunculus
Cardoon! What better a name for a plant, I say? What better name for anything? It’s a word, for me, that conjures up Ye Olden Days of Olde English Gardening, that golden era of gardening when a plant so spiky, so silvery, so deserving of appreciation truly must’ve gotten its due. Well, times have changed, but thankfully cardoon has not, and to bust a very Seussian rhyme, let me tell you — it’s still hot hot hot.
I’ve been drawn to cardoon since I first came across this old volume published by Horticulture magazine, a book that, pardon the drama, pretty much changed the way I looked at planting forever. I still reference it all the time. Cardoon, and indeed all the Mediterranean plants in that book, were so alluringly different, so given to an aesthetic I desired, I knew instantly we were meant to be.
This belief was reinforced when I saw cardoon planted en masse at NYBG this summer, and heard on Good Enough Gardening that Amanda had successfully overwintered cardoon in Zone 5 Indiana. I’m going to plant and protect cardoon like she says and see what happens. I also snagged a few left over from annual container plantings from Lynn Felici-Gallant last fall, and though it was too late to try them in the ground, I’ve been overwintering them in my attic. So we’re taking the shotgun approach to cardoon-growing over here. I’ll let you know what works best. Regardless, I’m hopeful.
Cardoon is part of Asteraceae, the aster or composite family, and it’s one plant family I imagine you know very well. I’ll be discussing Asteraceae more next week. In the meanwhile, you’ll find some fascinating historical trivia on Wikipedia’s cardoon entry. Apparently its stems are served in a particular Catholic tradition in New Orleans, battered and fried, of course. (Mmmm… Cardoon beignets… Wait. What?) Guess I should add cardoon to my courtyard planting plan, eh?
- Posted by AK on 2010 Mar 26 at 0658
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Cardoon sounds like an insult from a grumpy Scot, doesn’t it? “Get awae with thae, tha great carmudgeonly cardoon!” I can say that because I have more than a wee drop of Scot in me, and I don’t mean the distilled version. Not at this hour of the morning. Honestly.
I’m still working on my native list. Other things keep getting in the way, like…deadlines. Sleep. Stuff like that.
Have to say that here in Ye Olde Englande we are pretty much constantly on the go with Cardoons, blanching their stems to eat, air drying the flowers for decoration or just plain thinking about how fabulous they are in borders.
Good luck!
Robert
You guys crack me up! Yes, Jodi, it DOES sound like a curmudgeonly Scot (and a *great* one at that), and Robert, glad to hear cardoon culture is still alive and well in Old Limey.
AK,
I must admit that cardoon doesn’t do it for me garden-wise but I do think it would be a fine name for your first-born child (assuming you don’t already have a first-born child. :)
Oh, and Debbie, I do not, in fact, have a first born child, and none planned, but I will most certainly take that into account for any future pets that need names. Too bad I’m sort of allergic to cats, Cardoon would be a great cat name.
There’s nothing I don’t love about cardoon* - I maybe even love it more than plants with “wort” in the name. I think you might just be able to winter it over - we have. Hell, if you can overwinter Uncle aspidistra, you can do anything.
*I can’t actually speak to the pleasures associated with eating it. I have heard though that a liquor called Cynara made from its cousin artichoke is “terrifying”.
@Kris: Ha! Those wort plants are always great, aren’t they? If you guys have overwintered them, I feel pretty good about my chances too, and I am indeed frightened of artichoke liquor. Hope you guys haven’t been affected by the crazy flooding I’ve seen in parts of RI and the South Coast!