"Steve" wrote
I am a gardening novice, stocking a new garden on the east coast of
Scotland. I have about 12" of light topsoil, with sand below that, so
the site is well drained. We normally get a fair bit of rain, although
it has been dry for most of the last month and I have had to put the
sprinkler on once or twice a week lately.

I have always admired Sea Holly or eryngium and have bought 2 in the
last few months. One, a low growing type called Picos Blue, is doing
well. The other, a taller looking type called Jos Eijking, looked OK
for a couple of weeks then suddenly took poorly. One day it was
developing good looking flowers at the top of its stem, a few days
later a 4" section of stem just below the flower heads had turned
brown and flopped over. A few of the leaves lower down have turned
brown as well, but the rest of the plant looks OK so far.

This happened after a spell of wet and windy weather. Could it be
wind damage? I can't see any external breaks in the stem. If it is
wind damage, will it harm the plant to cut it back now? If it doesn't
sound like wind damage, any suggestions about what it might be?

If it survives, I have read somewhere that it needs to be "protected
from winter wet". Any suggestions about how to do that, short of
taking it indoors?

Hi Steve. I'm a bit of a novice too and also have light sandy soil which
Eryngiums seem to enjoy. Good plants, aren't they? I planted Picos Blue
last year and it's flowering for the first time now - a very good
variety. I don't find I need to give them any extra water at all, even
in the driest weather. In fact too much water and not sharp enough
drainage would probably make them grow too 'soft' and more vulnerable to
winter damage.

Haven't grown Jos Eijking but I'd suspect it was a combination of not
yet being well established plus the wet and windy weather, as you say,
that bent and damaged the developing stem of your plant, and if it's now
brown and shrivelling I'd think it must be best to cut the stem out.

Your plant should be hardy outside as long as it gets enough sun and has
really good drainage. If in doubt, plant with extra grit is what I've
done!

--
Sue