Wicked Thistles

Thistle budding

Last year, there was one thistle rosette in the ground. Curious to see what it would do, I let it be. It grew tall and proud, almost bust high. Robust, if you will. Well, perhaps the butterflies will like it, I thought.

This year, we have a thistle circle. At the risk of offending any local pixies or fairies or nagas, I will be shoveling them out before the thistles set seeds as, to my horror, according to IFAS, one plant can send out 4,000 seeds…

A word to the wise. If you see a rosette, dig it up. Don’t be me. There is a perfectly terrifying photo in the article below with a field covered in these spikey, hearty thistles. Of course, if you wanted to create a no-man’s (or any creature) land, this would be quite effective.

University of Florida article: http://blogs.ifas.ufl.edu/bakerco/2020/02/01/thistle/

and : https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/AG253