Cynara Cardunculus

Hi Scottish, I have grown 1 of these this year for the first time, it only has 2 flowers on it yet, as it's a young plant, but the leaves are enormous, I didn't realize they got over 6 ft tall either, I'm 6ft tall, and have to look up to see the flowers :-) , Derek.

I'm only 5ft Derek, so you will get a better look than me ;) Mind you, now you know how us short arses fell most of the time..lol!
Luckily I am raised up a bit by the decking to get an closer look. This is 4 years old this year and is verging on the 7ft.
I used to have 3 plants but decided 1 was more than enough! I gave one to my brother and his never reaches more than 4ft high, yet with me it was 6ft in it's first year. His garden is on a slope and I think it might be lack of moisture than keeps his smaller.

Fantastic, we used to grow this in our old garden......