Solanum pyracanthum (AKA Porcupine Tomato)

I know that there are other gardeners who like out-of-the-ordinary plants as much as I do, but I admit that this prickly monster is a stretch. At last year’s sale I bought eight tiny Firethorn plants and thoroughly enjoyed having them in my garden. Every child who saw them was enchanted and every grown-up had to ask what the heck they were. I was surprised at how well Firethorn mingled with other plants and at what a lovely orange mist they created with the sun shining through them. Firethorn looks especially nice with orange Zinnias and Nasturtiums, and with purple Sea Holly.

Yikes! Wicked, scary, and bizarre. Half-inch decorative orange thorns line the orange veins on both tops and undersides of the long, deeply lobed blue-green leaves. More thorns on the orange fuzzy stems. Star-shaped 1” lavender flowers in summer are just the plant’s futile attempt to look cute. Fiercely beautiful in combination with orange flowers and copper foliage.

48″ wide and 36” tall sun