Echium Pininana

Its very interesting but sounds like trouble. :-)

They are quite dramatic really and OK in the right place.They grow to about 4 metres high.But they are bullies.( I sound like I know what I'm talking about I dont really )

Is this prickly ?

Yes TT very.All over. You have to wear gloves before handling it.The stem can be 2 or 3 inches thick and woody.

"In defence of the Echium".

Hameryllis, (my other half) hates the Echium, but actually, they are a lovely thing to grow, take between two to three years to flower, and then die, very architectural, brilliant blue flowers which the bees love. Aren't frost hardy so unless given some protection will not survive a hard winter. I don't think any of ours have survived, so any seedlings that do pop up will be three years to maturity.( Hammy will be pleased) You can get others in the species which are a lot smaller, last year I had a red one about two foot high, managable. Didn't seed though.PamD

how have yours done this winter??

Not very well Sandra.The winter was a bit too hard for them we think,and it seems we may have lost all the seedlings that were around.

us two...i had over 30 seedlings in one bed and would usualy loose a few over the winter but they are all gone. but i have found one or two that have hung on in there. i'm hopeing a few more will germinate.

I'm sorry to hear that, Sandra, specially if were hoping to sell them. We,ve had them growing for about for about 17 winters and I don't think that they would desert us now.