The Genus of Sea Hollies contains a fair few that seem to have little visually in common with Holly and this one from South America proves the point.
It is an evergreen perennial with long strappy leaves to 1.5metres long with fine sharp spines along the edges so that dead leaf removal needs to be done with gloves! The flower spikes can be up to 3metres tall and the form I grow which I raised from seed was given to me by the late Christopher Lloyd and it apparently originally came from the Chelsea physic garden, so what a pedigree! The main attraction of this form is that the ball like flower heads are a deep burgundy colour where as the usual forms have muddy green flower heads.
Plant it in an open sunny aspect with moist to wet soil and allow it space to show itself off and obviously keep it well back from paths as the leaves bite!
For all this it is a great feature plant and I for one wouldn’t be without it.
I have plants in 25cm. pots at $23.50
