Cynara

A peasant's vegetable is now becoming a staple of the very best gardens. A wonderful fountain 3m tall of huge silver leaves that are covered with spiky purple thistles during the summer. At dusk they look like ghosts about to move off around the garden. To eat them you need to tie up the leaves to blanch them, which robs the plant of its majesty.

Shorter growing cardoon (1.5m) with very finely-cut leaves. Also very tasty.