CENTAUREA ragusina

Fabulous herbaceous, perennial and evergreen, with rapid growth, with pulvinate habit, belonging to the Asteraceae family and traceable in its spontaneous state in the cracks of the vertical limestone walls of the eastern Adriatic cliffs: the term "Ragusina" refers to the old name of the city of Dubrovnik in Croatia. Small, it can grow up to 45 cm tall at full development and even 80 cm large. Semi-woody and strongly branched at the base, it produces numerous creeping stems on which are arranged, to form large rosettes, fleshy leaves, with a long pinnate-lobed petiole, with wavy margins and covered with a delicate fluff, which gives it a truly fascinating silvery-white color. From late spring to mid-summer, from the compact mass of the foliage, numerous flower heads of a shade of bright yellow rise on peduncles, single or briefly branched, such as to create a very refined contrast with the underlying leaves.

It definitely needs sunny positions and is not suitable to low light conditions which can lead to death in a short time. It needs poor, stony, arid and above all well-drained soils. Excellently tolerant to even prolonged drought, it can withstand a few degrees of temperature below zero, as long as it is not long lasting and not associated with environmental humidity conditions. The brackish winds of coastal regions do not affect the natural beauty of this plant. It does not need special pruning: in spring, just remove parts that are out of place or dry or damaged in the previous bad season. Perfect in containers, on terraces and balconies, where the utmost care must be taken to the draining nature of the soil. In the open ground in a Mediterranean-type garden, it is pleasant in rocks, or on the edges of dry stonewalls, from which it can fall with a truly scenographic effect or on slopes and sloping areas as a carpet: finally, use it in sequence of several specimens to create very rustic low borders.