Great globe thistle/blue thistle is a garden work horse thriving in many different climates and in just about any soil. This perennial starts with spiny-edged leaves that are white and woolly underneath, and flowers reliably in mid-summer, turning this green orb into an intensely blue, globe-shaped flower. The thistle grows two to five feet tall and almost as wide. Because it is showy and offers accessible nectar, female bees seek exclusively for food for their larvae as well as for themselves, sweeping up the abundant pollen with their abdominal brushes as they feast without effort.

Photo captured July 18, 2013.