Eryngium

Sea Holly

“independence and attraction”

Sea holly earned its steely, spiny looks on windswept coasts and dry ground where softer flowers cannot survive, and that hardy self-reliance gave it its meanings of independence and attraction. Its history as a love token is older than the Victorians: candied eryngium root, or 'eringoes', was an Elizabethan sweetmeat with a flirtatious reputation, even earning a mention in Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor. That rare metallic blue keeps its colour as it dries, so it works long after the vase.

In season, and in the studio

Sea Holly is in season all year round, so it is in the studio this month. In the studio's bunches it is texture: the airy, spiky, odd detail that gives a hand-tied its character between the bigger heads. The studio buys it in steel blue, and at the bench each colour is read for its own meaning.