Eryngiums are an adaptable and distinctive tribe of perennials with as much subtlety at one end of the spectrum as drama at the other. I first became aware of them in the mid 1970s through the renowned plantswoman Beth Chatto, who was using sea hollies on her stand at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. I had seen our native with its galvanised foliage and electric-blue thistles growing in sand dunes on the south coast, but Beth teamed it with drought-loving perennials and grasses to demonstrate its garden-worthiness. Sheand through her plantings in her gardens in Colchester, Essex, notably in the Gravel Garden, with its spectacular display of drought-tolerant plants. Later, when travelling in the mountains of northern Spain, I saw for myself with its armoury of thorns and silvery midribs, and the imposing, intense blue ‘Picos Blue’, basking in sunshine on the tussocky scree.
