Globe artichokes are really easy to grow on the West Coast but not quite hardy enough to be such an effortless perennial here in the frozen East.
We started a little planting of Green Globe Artichoke seedlings in late Winter and they grew quite well in the South window with a little supplemental lighting.
Artichoke plants will not usually flower and produce chokes in their first year so we had to do a little bit of trickery. If you give the young plants about 250 hours of chilly temperatures, keeping them under 50º F but above freezing, they will hopefully be fooled into believing that an entire Winter has been survived.
It worked! Lots and lots of pretty chokes are flowering on massive grey-green toothed plants.
I think we shall have to leave a few and allow the flowers to open fully. Pretty as a picture.
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