Update on Growing Artichokes from Seed

Last year I started some artichokes from seed, but they did not seem to do well. Some were eaten by bugs or other critters, and I had one lonely survivor, which was overwhelmed by the rampant tomato plants around it.  That one was not fooled by the "vernalization" treatment I gave it, which was supposed to trick it into thinking it had already gone through one summer. Artichokes are biennial, and they only make their edible buds in their second year. This one knew it had only been through one summer despite my earlier cold treatment, and it was just a little rosette of leaves on the ground. 

Last December I visited the Clark Botanic Garden and noticed that they had cardoon, a close relative of artichoke, planted outside and that it seemed to be doing fine. So I checked my own garden, and there was that one artichoke plant, looking pretty good! The coldest part of winter was still ahead, so I mulched it well and covered it, hoping it would survive and give me artichokes in 2013.

Today I uncovered it to see if it had made it through the coldest part of winter, and it had:

This year I'll make sure it has more space, gets lots of manure or compost, and is well-mulched. I'm hoping for some artichokes from it this year!

And now that I know you can overwinter artichokes here, I'll plant more of them and let them go through their normal 2-year lifespan, instead of trying to hurry them up and trick them into doing two years' worth of growing in one year.