Teasel - Fuller’s Teasel – (Dipsacus fullonum var. sativus) Common Teasel Tall Flowering Ornamental

Teasel - Fuller’s Teasel – (Dipsacus fullonum var. sativus) Common Teasel Tall Flowering Ornamental

Biennial

Height: 6 ft+

Absolutely extraordinary! If you are looking for something ornamental that attracts bees and birds...try this teasel.

This variety is a cultivated variety; also known as common teasel, and was used in the good old days by Victorian textile makers to tease and card the cloth with teasels spiny 'combs'  prior to spinning the cloth - this helped to raise the nap of the cloths surface.

Victorian era Best in the informal garden, teasel can be enjoyed all year round. In summer the pale lilac flowers crowd the thistle-like head and appear in bands of colour.

• Excellent in dried arrangements.
• Water trapped in leaf basins is valued by insects and birds
• The stately skeletons with their needle like bracts will continue to please as they catch snowflakes and cast long shadows during the short winter days.
• Suitable in a meadow setting, as well as at the back of a border.
• Direct sow the large seeds where you want them to grow, into warm soil in autumn or spring, or they can be started off indoors. Fill a small pot with seed compost, place a seed on the surface, and cover it over with a light sprinkling of compost or vermiculite; plant out when seedlings are large enough to handle and after all frost danger has passed
• Attracts bees and insects.
• Small purple blooms cover the rounded top.
• Harvesting seeds for reseeding: if you want to place your teasel elsewhere in the garden this is very easy to do...when heads are dried and brown - simply place a bucket under each head and gently tap; the seeds will drop out and the plant can be left as an ornamental feature over the winter. Or you can remove the heads and the entire plant
• Seeds that mature in the autumn also provide a much needed food source for birds such as the goldfinch.
• Seed count: 40