Acanthus sennii

Acanthus sennii is a stunning and relatively rare red-flowering Acanthus from the Ethiopian highlands where it grows at elevations of 1700-3200m. It has very attractive silvery-green foliage and dark purplish-black stems. The edges of the leaves are ruffled and stiff like a holly but much larger and even more spiky and with its clouded patterning and fierce spines it is a striking foliage plant in more ways than one! Young growth is softer and is coloured a very pleasing shade of greyish-pink with purple edges; the more mature leaves often closing around this new growth as protection from the sun. The brilliant vermillion-red flowers are borne in late summer or - more usually - early autumn and the inflorescence is a very spiky raceme from which the red ruffled petals emerge like tongues.

For a plant from tropical Africa, Acanthus sennii is surprisingly hardy in the British climate. It loses its leaves as the cold weather sets in and is best treated like a herbaceous perennial, chopping back the top growth and protecting the basal crown with a thick mulch from which the new growth will sprout vigourously in Spring.

Acanthus sennii likes a sunny aspect and a well-drained soil that has been prepared with the addition of sharp sand and shingle. It grows quite shrubby and tall so a sheltered position is ideal or its growth will flop down with the wind, although such an occurance is not altogether unpleasing to the eye.

Highly recommended.