Inspired by echiums

I’m sometimes asked how I dream up ideas for garden stories and have to say that chance comments often ping an idea.

For instance, the other day I was talking to one of my sisters about elderberries and the fact that the common weedy one had a couple of nice decorative versions, including purple-leaved Black Beauty and golden Aurea. ‘‘Ping’’ went the trigger in my brain: what else has weedy and decorative forms?

Echiums seem an obvious example, not only because of that weed/wanted aspect of the 70-odd species, the Canary Islands being the home of 25 of them. Because they grow best in dry conditions, garden varieties may become important in future in choosing flowers for our predicted hotter, drier summers.

These are plants that hate wet feet and do best in poor soils, which is why you’ll see the vipers bugloss (E. vulgare) growing in gravel by roadsides. The vivid blue flowers are pollen and nectar-laden and bees adore them, vipers bugloss honey now a familiar product.

Echiums belong to the same family as borage, so vipers bugloss is sometimes called blue borage. Beekeepers love the plant for its high nectar and pollen production, a characteristic of other echiums, too.

Purple vipers bugloss (E. plantagineum) is a pest plant in Australia, where it is known as Patersons Curse. Toxic to stock, it is estimated to cover 33 million hectares, mainly in the southern states. In New Zealand, the annual weed has been around since about 1870 but is uncommon in the South. E. plantagineum Blue Bedder, growing to about 50cm, is sold by some seed companies here.

To my mind, the best of the echiums for garden use are the tall forms. These are often referred to as Pride of Madeira, although strictly that means E. candicans (syn. E. fastuosum), which is a relative shorty at 2m tall and at least that wide.

That makes the garden varieties assets in drought-prone areas.

E. pinnata can grow to 6m and E. wildpretii 3m-4m, so they are great choices for adding height. Towers of jewels describes them well.

Blue is the most common, with named varieties available, including Blue Steeple (4m-6m) and Cobalt Towers (3m), while pink Pink Fountain grows 3m-4m. For red, E. wildpretii is recommended.

Tower of Jewels take two years from seed sowing to maturity because these tall echiums are biennials. After blooming, the entire plant dies but babies pop up all around. If you save them, be aware that children may not be exactly like the parent. The stem colour of seedlings can give a clue. For example, if you save the offspring of Snow Tower (E. pininana alba), those with pale green stems are most likely to grow into white-flowered adults.

If seed is saved or bought in as named varieties, sow it from spring to early autumn. Seedlings will appear in a week to a fortnight and because echiums are only half hardy, autumn-sown plants should be given winter shelter and planted out in spring.

The first year, they will form large rosettes of hairy grey-green leaves with stiff hairs that can cause an allergic reaction if they brush against bare skin. The second season, the towers live up to their name, with splendid spires of spring flowers.

In a dry spot, they can become a tall talking point.

 

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