I also am waiting to here if anyone has experience with it. I wintersowed some this year and shared some at the swap. So far in looking around on the net I've found it listed as invasive in California and Australia. Best I can tell reseeding is the problem and if that's so we can just make sure to deadhead. I'll see what else I can learn before planting. I just wanted to give a "heads up" to anyone who took home one of my babies last week.

Sally and Shari, I have had cardoon in my garden for over 6 years and never found it to be invasive at all. It certainly hasn't spread by suckers or anything like that and if it is invasive, it may be as Shari said via the seeds. I like the look of the flowers so typically cut mine and use them as cut flowers. I have attempted to direct seed it in beds and it has never come up for me in that manner. It is easy to start from seed inside however. The couple of times I have left the seed pod on the plant so that I could collect seeds, removal of the seeds has been very laborious and time intensive. Perhaps the pods need to sit outside over the winter to make the seeds easier to remove.

One note in my experience is that if the flowers are allowed to stay on the plant until they are brown (late summer or so), the plant as a whole tends to brown out also--almost as if it is going to die. I typically cut the plant back severely at this point and fresh new foliage emerges. The plant makes a great architectural form in the garden and I couldn't imagine not having it in the garden.

Here is a picture of a plant I started from seed last spring. It is 4 feet tall and just striking in appearance. My original 6 year old plant was removed this spring from a bed I had it in to make room for more clematis--a plant that I tend to collect in quantity.

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Thanks a million Miguel! You took a load off my mind. I'll plant the two I kept this weekend. Beautiful photo. From all the pictures I've seen you post I would love to see your your garden in person.

Thanks again,
Shari

What a gorgeous garden you have! Thanks so much for the reassuring information! Now I'll go plant it.

Happy Gardening!

Sally

My 2cents - this group of thistles isn't as easy to grow as many people claim. Plenty of people in the Triangle buy them and get them to live the rest of that first year but have problems after the first winter. Out of the many seedlings I grew I only have two left that are sending up flower buds now. If you can keep it alive, it can take a year or more before the root mass gets large enough to signal the plant to bloom (mine took two winters to get there). After reaching mature size it is common for the main plant to die completely, leaving many "pups" to take over the job. Pup survival through their first winter is iffy. I know you see them everywhere and I know that the people that grow them rave about how easy they are to grow. But trust me - plenty of people fail with this plant. There is no way they are invasive here.

This year I also have buds appearing on my globe artichokes -took two winters to get them at this point also. The chokes look to be about a third of normal store bought size and there are only three on the one plant big enough to bloom. These guys better taste real good or the whole group will be relocated somewhere out of the veggie garden. They take up a lot of space for such low yields.

Shari, I am so excited I got one of your babies. It is a totally new plant for me. It looks so cool from Miguel's picture. Shannon/Dirtrx

I sure hope the Cardoon I've planted survive better than ones I grew last summer. The seeds are easy to germinate by winter sowing, but I might have crowded out my old plants because they didn't survive their first summer. trianglejohn, thanks for the comforting info that they're not a cinch to grow.

I also grew it in King's Mountain. I loved it. It didn't survive the move, tho. However, while at a local nursery buying pepper plants, I spied another one and brought it home. I didn't find it to be invasive at all. It may reseed but I kept mine picked and saved the seeds for trading.

Nancy