Whizpopper Alert

How can I be delicate about this huge 10 foot flower? When this plant flowers it produces these lovely bright yellow blooms which indicate that the very lethal roots are ready to devour - trouble is that if you eat the Jerusalem artichoke in almost any form, the results are likely to blow you into the stratosphere.
But on the plus side, these lovely flowers last in water for days.
I once travelled to Guernsey on the old ferry in a ten force gale and was very ill. When I arrived my lovely kind boyfriend (keen gardener and cook) had made me some artichoke soup. I haven't really been able to touch it since! The relationship didn't last.