Artichoke Flowers

Two weeks back I purchased a few bunches of artichoke flowers from my local fruit market.
My eye was instantly drawn to their dramatic, almost succulent like look. While they may look similar to succulents the artichoke flowers are not at all fleshy. Rather they are quite tough and spiky.
The colours worked perfectly for my living room and the flowers took pride of place in the middle of our dining table.

Spiky artichoke flowers

Fast forward two weeks and my artichoke flowers have changed completely. Just as I thought they were starting to die off the flowers decided to surprise me with purple petals coming out the centre.
The resulting look is much softer and adds a nice splash of colour to our living room. It's just like having new flowers.

Just like a whole new flower

The purple blooming out of the centre really shows that artichokes are a member of the thistle family.
I've always thought that thistle flowers make a beautiful (yet ouchy!) display.