Miss Willmott's ghost
Eryngium giganteum · Apiaceae
Pale green cones in wide, spiny collars that turn silver-white, like ghosts in the border at dusk. It flowers once, sets seed and dies.
- Size
- 3 ft tall, 18 in wide
- Zones
- 4 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Flowers
- Early July to mid August
- Pets
- Not checked
- Job in a bed
- Accent
A bed built around miss Willmott's ghost
The planner designed this bed around miss Willmott's ghost when this page was made: a 12 × 6 ft (3.7 × 1.8 m) cottage garden in zone 6, full sun. It chose the other plants from the 715 that suit those conditions and its dry soil, and says below why miss Willmott's ghost stands where it does.
The plants
- 1 Miss Willmott's ghost × 3, white
- 2 Cheddar pinks 'Tiny Rubies' × 24, pink
- 3 Leadwort × 10, blue
- 4 Brown-eyed Susan × 3, yellow
- 5 Dwarf English boxwood × 1, dark green leaves
- 6 Foxglove beardtongue × 3, white
- 7 Red spider lily × 5, red
- 8 Surprise lily × 3, pink
Why this plant
- The only bold leaves here. The rest are fine and medium. A change of leaf keeps plants distinct when nothing is in flower.
- The only globes. The others are open bowls, dense clusters, daisies and others. Shape reads at a distance, where colours blur.
Why here
- In the middle. At 3 ft it is seen over leadwort (10 in) in front of it.
- 3 plants in 3 places. An accent is a punctuation mark: the repeat along the bed gives it rhythm.
- Bold leaf against fine. Dwarf English boxwood is beside it: the strongest contrast of leaf there is.
Why now
- In flower for 7 weeks. From early July to mid August.
- Fills a gap. For three of those weeks nothing else on the plan is in flower.
Planned as a cottage garden: 44 of the 44 plants (100%), bulbs aside, stand alone or in groups of no more than five, small enough for the kinds to mingle. Cool colours (pink and blue) with yellow and red as the warm notes, and white to calm things between them. Neither end outweighs the other: the visual weight is split 50 to 50, left to right.
The planner's own design check: 13 Excellent, 4 Good. It flags one thing to watch: Nothing on this plan is highly poisonous or an aggressive spreader.
Open this bed in the planner Change its size, the sun or the style, move plants about, or swap one for another.
Where miss Willmott's ghost goes in a border
At 3 ft it belongs in the middle of a bed. In the planner's ten height classes it is medium tall (2½ to 3 ft).
Its job: accent. An upright plant used singly, like a punctuation mark, and repeated at intervals to give the bed rhythm.
Named for Ellen Willmott, who is said to have scattered its seed in other people's gardens. Let it seed and thin the rosettes: the silver heads in August are worth the trouble.
- Silver accents in a dry border
- Evening gardens
- Dried flowers
What to plant with miss Willmott's ghost
Plants recorded as good partners for it, and what each pairing does:
- Russian sage: in flower together for six weeks, from mid July; fine leaves against its bold ones; happy in the same dry soil.
- Mexican feather grass: in flower together for four weeks, from early July; fine leaves against its bold ones; low enough (20 in) to stand in front of it.
- Purple coneflower: in flower together for seven weeks, from early July; medium leaves against its bold ones.
Questions about miss Willmott's ghost
Does miss Willmott's ghost need sun or shade?
Miss Willmott's ghost grows in full sun (6 or more hours of direct sun a day).
It wants dry, sharply drained soil, on the lean side, with no feeding, and little watering once settled.
What zones does miss Willmott's ghost grow in?
USDA zones 4 to 8. It is hardy to zone 4, which means it survives winter nights down to about −20 °F (−29 °C).
Above zone 8 it struggles: the zones measure winter cold, but a plant's top zone usually means the summers are too hot or the winters too mild for it to rest.
Gardening in Canada? Use the USDA zone for your town: Canada's own zone map uses different numbers.
When does miss Willmott's ghost flower in my zone?
In zone 5 it flowers early July to mid August. As a summer flower it moves about half a week for every zone: earlier where it is warmer.
| Zone 4 | Mid July to late August |
|---|---|
| Zone 5 | Early July to mid August |
| Zone 6 | Early July to mid August |
| Zone 7 | Late June to early August |
| Zone 8 | Late June to early August |
Worked out from Hopkins' bioclimatic law: spring arrives about four days later for each degree of latitude north, and one zone is roughly two degrees. A warm spring or a cold one moves any garden two weeks either way.
How far apart should miss Willmott's ghost be planted?
16 in (40 cm) apart, from the middle of one plant to the middle of the next. That is a little closer than its full width of 18 in (45 cm), so a group knits into one patch.
It grows 3 ft (90 cm) tall. Give it the full distance from anything taller, or it will lean out towards the light.
How many miss Willmott's ghost plants do I need?
At 16 in apart, set out in staggered rows:
- 7 to fill 10 square feet (about 1 m²)
- 8 for a single row 10 ft (3 m) long
- 21 to fill a 4 × 8 ft bed on its own
In a mixed border, plant it as one at a time, repeated along the bed at intervals; a slender one reads better as a clump of three.
In the bed above, the planner used three in three groups.
Will miss Willmott's ghost spread?
It seeds itself about; the risk of it taking over is moderate. Dies after flowering and returns from seed, sometimes in numbers. Thin the seedlings in spring; they resent being moved.
What flowers after miss Willmott's ghost?
Miss Willmott's ghost is over by mid August. These start as it finishes and carry the same spot on, so it never goes flat:
- Garden chrysanthemum: from mid September to late October, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Lilyturf: from early August to mid September, 16 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
- Sedum 'Autumn Joy': from mid August to mid October, 24 in tall, to stand in front of it and cover its fading stems.
What does miss Willmott's ghost look like in winter?
Miss Willmott's ghost dies down to the ground and there is nothing to see until spring. The old stems can be cut in autumn, or left until spring as shelter for overwintering insects.
More Eryngium
- Alpine sea holly Eryngium alpinum
- Mediterranean sea holly Eryngium bourgatii
- Rattlesnake master Eryngium yuccifolium
- Sea holly Eryngium planum
- Sea holly 'Big Blue' Eryngium x zabelii 'Big Blue'
- Sea holly 'Blue Hobbit' Eryngium planum 'Blue Hobbit'
In these guides
Every fact on record
- Type
- Perennial
- Size
- 3 ft (90 cm) tall, 18 in (45 cm) wide
- Plant
- 16 in (40 cm) apart
- Height class
- Medium tall (2½ to 3 ft)
- Place in the bed
- Middle
- Flowers
- Early July to mid August; globes; white, blue
- Leaves
- Bold texture, herbaceous; green, silver
- Shape
- Upright, self-seeding
- Hardy in
- USDA zones 4 to 8
- Light
- Full sun
- Soil
- Lean, dry and sharply drained
- Water
- Low
- Feeding
- None needed
- Family
- Apiaceae
Checked against VASCAN (plants of Canada). Flowering times are for zone 5: later in colder zones, earlier in warmer ones. Toxicity and spread information is a general gardening guide, not veterinary or medical advice, and invasive status varies by region. If a person or pet eats a plant, contact poison control or a vet. Check your local invasive species list before planting anything with a spread warning.