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Echiums

© Jojo Sigurgeirson

Echiums are great plants! They love poor, dry soil and don't need a long hot summer to bloom. Deer don't seem to like them, and they all attract lots of bees.

Pride of Madiera
Echium candicans is hardy only to zone 9, but makes up for this in so many ways. The deer won't touch it. It assumes regal proportions of 3 to 6 feet tall and spreads just as wide. The violet-blue flowers contrast beautifully with the grey-green spikey leaves, over which they tower, and never need staking. Overall, the plant has an excellent look to it. It looks great at the backs of wide borders, on slopes, and is very effective against dark-coloured walls. People in wet climates may find that this Echium is short-lived, and some books report it as a biennial. Actually it's a shrubby perennial and dislikes highly wet winters, so make sure it's in a very well-drained place. If you find the base is getting quite woody and leggy, either live with it (they look nice when they range a bit) or take up to 1/3 of it's branches down in early spring. This will cause the plant to bush out slightly.

Weedy Echium
Echium vulgare is a plant that is sometimes cultivated, but usually hoed out. It seeds freely and can become a pest. The flowers and seed heads are sticky and have a skunky odour to them. If you're out on a walk and you think you smell marijuana, it could just be weedy Echium, so don't call the fuzz.

Russian Echium
Echium russicum grows on grassy slopes, in open pine forests and on rocky hills from Turkey north to Russia and west to Austria. This is also often described as biennial, but has proven itself truly perennial in mild climates to -12 degrees celcius in the winter (zone 8b). As a biennial it is hardy to -20 degrees celcius.

Tower of Jewels
Echium wildpretii is a very showy tower indeed. This amazing plant can grow up to 10 feet tall, but 6 feet is more usual. It doesn't grow much in it's first year, but concentrates on sending down a very thick tap root. The next year it grows alot but usually they dont' flower in year two. The narrow leaves are a stiff texture and silvery-grey. You can expect flowers in year three, and these are impressive and worth the wait. Tower of Jewels forms a thick column of rose red flowers, sometimes up to 1 foot thick. Then the plant dies! If you have this plant, be sure to collect the seeds so you can re-sow them next spring!

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