Chelsea Flower Show: the popular plume thistle

Every year at the Show there's a plant (or more than one) that's seen in lots of the show gardens. This year, for me, the main two were lupins and peonies, as I wrote about in my guest blog for That's Not My Age.

Last year, for example, was the bronze iris.

This year, as well as lupins and peonies, there was a smaller specimen on show in many, many gardens. Small-flowered, with a tufty, thistle-like flowerhead, it's the plume thistle, or Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum'. I took a close-up shot of it on the Hardy's stand in the marquee:

And here it is in some of the gardens:

Morgan Stanley (with lupins and peonies)

The Anneka Rice Colour Cutting Garden

The Mind Trap garden

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