Cardoon Foliage - Re-Emerging in Late Summer - September 2024
Late last year, I planted a singular Cardoon IB2DWs after seeing some of them growing in the Fragrance Garden at the Morton Arboretum. It was eaten a little bit by rabbits, but I ended up protecting it over the winter with a ring of chicken wire. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it seemed to survive all Winter and then grew in Spring and Summer. By July, it was good-sized and started to bloom . The blooms were these out-of-this-world purple-spiked blooms that look like they belong on Pandora (Avatar). After it bloomed, I decided to cut it back to the ground. I left just a short segment of the stalk that seemed to die-back to the ground. That was it, I figured. But...something has happened recently. Foliage started to emerge from the mulch. What the what? Have a look at the current state of my cardoon - coming back in late Summer/early Fall. Is this thing confused? Will it survive the winter? Will it bloom again? The orange zinnias next to these are doing really we