The garden globe thistle is a popular garden flower. It’s a fast growing perennial with spiky balls of flower buds that burst into starry balls of pale blue flowers.
If you grow echinops in your garden you will undoubtedly notice a range of garden pollinators visiting for its rich nectar. Each flower offers visiting pollinators nectar. The whole ball is covered in dozens and dozens of flowers. It’s a strong stem that will support the weight of visiting bees, especially bumblebees. But there’s another reason why it’s so popular.
Ongoing research from the University of Bristol (Nick Tew – yet to be published) reveals that a single globe thistle (Echinops ritro) flower head provides as much nectar as 32 cosmos flowers, 108 rosemary flowers or 349 lawn daisies.
That’s a staggering amount of nectar to feed our precious pollinators.