My echium which i hope flowers this year! (UPDATE)

[sanatic1234]

Got some good feed back on facebook about this most people think it has a good chance of flowering this year, I HOPE SO It now measures at 4ft 5 inches.

[kata]

WOW!!!

Thats a great looking plant San. Do they all grow like that...sort of a standard...its awesome.

Well done!!!



That looks a nice woodland backdrop past the fence.

Looked in Google San, what color is yours? I bought the seed in January off Ebay. blue.

Echium_Fastuosum.jpg (29.72 KiB) Viewed 2205 times

[sanatic1234]

mine is a piniana kata, purple flowers it should be. and thank you, i am very happy with it. it was only 20cm's tall last year when i got it
As for the background i like the woodland effect just not the conifers kata they are the 30ft high ones i sometimes go on about.

you can get the dwarf echiums kata, i think red has one and his flowers a lot by the sounds of it.

[Springy]

Oh no! Someone has pinched all your brussel sprouts!!

Looks old enough to flower. I had one for two years and it still didn't flower. In the third year the frost killed it!
Trying a few seeds of them again this year.
Fingers crossed for yours though!

[sanatic1234]

i know spring i went out this morning to get some brussells, i am disgusted
which one did you have before it got killed? i am going to have a go at wildpretti next and fastuosum like kata has posted.

[kata]

at both of you guys...your the best

[Troppoz]

What an awesome plant San! I love its form, looks like it would have been right at home in a Devonian swamp with giant dragonflies!

And if it flowers anything like Kata's picture it will be breathtaking.

I spent some of my childhood in the Riverina area in New South Wales. Mediterranean climate, good soils and prime agricultural land. Every spring the countryside would just turn into endless stretches of mauve when the introduced Echium plantagineum flowered. Stunning as it was it was a noxious weed and took up to 90%of pasture. It is toxic to stock so hits farmers quite hard. Bees love it and so do apiarists but the honey is supposed to contain carcinogens. Funny how I know how bad it is but seeing the pictures sort of makes me feel a bit nostalgic for childhood...

Farmers call it Patterson's Curse after some bloke Patterson who introduced it for horticulture in the late 18th Century. Youll also find its flowers sold in bunches at markets and some florists where they call it Riverina Bluebells

But I digress San, its a lovely plant youve got

[Arlon Tishmarsh]

Looks good San.
My Echiums are now going into their 3rd season and the one has put on about 2ft of growth in as many weeks and its packed with what looks like flower buds between each of the leaf bases. Hopefully won't be tooooo long now.

[sanatic1234]

Thank you troppoz. I really do hope it seeds, i would not mind them popping up all over the place either it would look more natural than being placed in a garden. and i would have them for years to come, and can help out members if they ever wanted one.
That picture is stunning you have posted. looks lovely. The flower stalk is meant to reach about 6-7ft? not sure if that's in its own habitat or if it applies to the UK as well?

[sanatic1234]

Thanks Arlon. Is that where the flowers appear from in between the leaf bases? mine has had the same for a few days now, i just thought it was new leafs forming? i got the impression that it chucked out a big flower spike type thing like yuccas but just full of flowers and not showing a bare stem.

[kata]

Thanks Arlon. Is that where the flowers appear from in between the leaf bases?

BBC

http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/p ... 1031.shtml

[Troppoz]

Just spotted this one in Wikipedia, Echium wildpretii from Tenerife. Gorgeous!

Also read that good old Patterson Curse is a native of south east England which I didnt know. Does it grow in the same abundance over there and is it used as a garden plant?

[Kristen]

That picture is stunning you have posted. looks lovely. The flower stalk is meant to reach about 6-7ft? not sure if that's in its own habitat or if it applies to the UK as well?

Yours is E. pininana ? That throws up a tall flowering stalk, whereas the one in Kata's photo is more of a bush with shorter flower spikes on top (looks nice though, b ut possibly less dramatic!)

I'd like to have a go at E. wildpretii too, but they rot so easily in winter ... E. pininana probably the "easiest"

[Deedee]

ive sown echium pininana, fingers crossed..san, yours is stunning

[stephenprudence]

This habit is normal for Echium which have been hit by frost but not totally cut down. Although some of these below are 12-15 ft high, it still demonstrates the point.

as below:



I don't think you got below -5C this winter with an Echium outside which survived San for sure. It will almost certainly flower this year.