Cardoon

* Common name: Cardoon

* Botanical name: Cynara cardunculus

* What it is: Technically, a tender herb whose stems are edible when blanched and boiled, but a better use is as a striking specimen foliage plant. Leaves are big, bold, jagged-edged and silvery, and stems are spiny. May get purple thistle-like flowers in late summer before dying at frost.

* Size: 4 to 5 feet tall, 3 to 4 feet around.

* Where to use: Makes interesting eye-grabber in the center of a vegetable or herb garden. Also works as a focal-point plant in a perennial and shrub bed. Best in full sun.

* Care: Start from seed inside in early April and plant out in mid-May. Or buy a small transplant in the herb section of a garden center. Water twice weekly for the first few weeks, then weekly the rest of the season. Work compost into soil before planting and scatter a balanced, organic granular fertilizer over the soil after planting. Cut off flowers before they mature to prevent unwanted reseeding outside. Yank after frost kills the foliage.

* Great partner: Purple sage in the herb garden, dwarf purple asters in a perennial garden.