iDENTIFICATION PLEASE

[lottie dolly]

A friend has given me some plants,she has them labeled as an ornamental thistle,cynaracardinchlies?,now not sure what they are,she looked on line and cannot see the flowers,the are not a cardoon,as the ones i grew had very large roots,apparently the flower spike has lots of smaller pinky flowers,and the seed pod is very prickly,and grow to aprox 4ft,they are just starting to shoot up,on the end of the long roots are lots of fiber roots,it was got several years ago,and still not a massive root,but grows from seed,thanks for your help.

[Guest]

looks like acanthus but I can't remember which is which mollis or spinosa

[veggiechicken]

I have Acanthus Spinosa and Scarlet has Mollis (sound like diseases).

These are Spinosa leaves



and flowers



Very spiky!

[lottie dolly]

Thankyou ladies,will show her a pic and see,they will be welcome in the garden,but defo NO to cardoons,they to big,have a small clump and several baby's to pot up,they are having to be cleared for work,we moved 1 clump to another part of her garden,and i got the rest,she can have some back when ever,thanks again.

[DannyK]

I've got three acanthuses of different varieties. The lady I bought one from said they're difficult to get rid of which suits me fine as I've a heavy soil which slows down most thugs.

Per the RHS, "We advise against moving this plant as new shoots will emerge from deep roots unavoidably left behind and may be difficult to eradicate". One that disappeared and I thought I'd killed has been resurrecting itself over the years.