Asparagus is Horrid

Thriving through our summer of heat is the fascinating Asparagus horridus. If you can’t tell from the photo, the foliage of this asparagus fern is actually masses of needle-sharp spines, from hence the specific epithet arises. This species is little-known in ornamental gardening circles, although foragers actually harvest the young foliage for food before the spines mature. It has a wide distribution through the Mediterranean region from Spain through Middle East, and Northern Africa. Our plants, which originated from an Alan Galloway collection in Majorca, Spain, have been planted since 2019 had no trouble with our 11 degree F. winter in 2023. For us, the foliage remains evergreen most winters. As you can imagine, all plants with such a natural distribution have superb drought tolerance.

Asparagus horridus

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