{"id":9809,"date":"2017-07-13T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-07-13T16:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=9809"},"modified":"2020-06-18T17:11:57","modified_gmt":"2020-06-18T21:11:57","slug":"thistle-like-bears-breeches","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2017\/07\/13\/thistle-like-bears-breeches\/","title":{"rendered":"Thistle-like Bear\u2019s Breeches"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Acanthis spinosa<\/em> at Kingwood Center, Mansfield, Ohio<\/p><\/div>\n

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Archiecturally beautiful flowers<\/p><\/div>\n

Spiny bear’s breeches (Acanthus spinosa<\/em>) is a clump-forming perennial treasured for its attractive thistle-like foliage and architecturally bold flower spikes (USDA hardiness zones 5b-9). Plant requires little maintenance and is long-lived. Deeply-cut, arching, glossy green, spiny, thistle-like leaves\u00a0attain\u00a02-3 feet in length on older plants and remain\u00a0attractive through the growing season. Leaves bear mostly hidden\u00a0spines on the tip of leaf lobes.<\/p>\n

In late June through July (in zone 7), wands of hood-bracted flowers stand upwards of 2 feet above the dark green foliage mound. White-lipped blossoms expose purple (mauve) calyces. Foxglove\u2013like flowers vary from white, pink or purple and attract lots of bees.<\/p>\n

Good soil drainage is absolutely essential. Bear\u2019s breeches is easily grown in average medium soil in full sun to part shade. The plant lingers or fails on poorly drained sites. In richly organic soil, plant mounds may reach\u00a03-4 feet tall and wide. Plants tolerate considerable shade, but at the expense of flower numbers.<\/p>\n

Foliage needs some afternoon shade in southern U.S. hot summers (zone 7-9). Over the years bear\u2019s breeches will aggressively spread by underground rhizomes. Additional seedlings may pop up from the mother plant. \u00a0In the early years it establishes slowly in the garden. Older clumps\u00a0may\u00a0be difficult to eradicate; new shoots can sprout if\u00a0a small section of root is left behind.<\/p>\n

Bear\u2019s breeches has no serious insect or disease problems. In wet summers snails and slugs cause considerable damage to the foliage if left unchecked. The showy flowers are long lasting in cut floral arrangements. Be wary that each flower harbors a tiny sharp spine. Deer and rabbits generally stay away from this spiny plant.<\/p>\n

Bear\u2019s breeches (A. mollis<\/em>), also indigenous to Southern Europe, bears softer spines, and\u00a0is not as cold hardy as its spinier cousin (A. spinosus<\/em>).\u00a0<\/em>Protect A. mollis<\/em> from afternoon sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spiny bear’s breeches (Acanthus spinosa) is a clump-forming perennial treasured for its attractive thistle-like foliage and architecturally bold flower spikes (USDA hardiness zones 5b-9). Plant requires little maintenance and is long-lived. Deeply-cut, arching, glossy green, spiny, thistle-like leaves\u00a0attain\u00a02-3 feet in length on older plants and remain\u00a0attractive through the growing season. Leaves bear mostly hidden\u00a0spines on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[444,772,1218,1412,747,1319,605,645,674,806,774,853,551,625,843,812,1059,729,1140,1141,777,630,705,706,646,455,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9809"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9809"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9809\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12577,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9809\/revisions\/12577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}