Flower tower!
With stunning floral stems that can soar to more than 15ft, exotic echiums really are out of this world
I’M NOT easily distracted while driving, but can clearly remember losing concentration when approaching a roundabout in Cornwall about 20 years ago. The traffic island on the outskirts of Penzance was not your typical circle of grass dotted with municipal shrubs – it was planted with a dazzling array of subtropical beauties.
Soaring over the other plants was a group of specimens with colossal, tapering stems smothered in purplish-blue flowers. On my return from holiday, I carried out some research and discovered these floral giants were tree echiums (echium pininana).
Despite its name, echium pininana is not a tree, and doesn’t even have any branches. In fact, it’s a frost-tender biennial that forms a low rosette of lance-shaped, hairy, silvery leaves in its first year, followed by a flower stem in the next that is capable of rising to 15ft or more.
The show-stopping spire begins its ascent in late winter, when the shoot tip between the 3ft-wide clumps of leaves starts to extend. It grows rapidly over the next few months, reaching full height in late spring. Each spike carries thousands of tiny, funnelshaped flowers that open from May to July.
Tree echiums are native to the Canary Island of La Palma, where sadly they are under threat due to habitat loss. They were brought to Britain in the late 19th Century and were probably first grown in the clement grounds of Tresco Abbey Gardens on the Isles of Scilly.
Like pulmonaria, comfrey and heliotrope, the tree echium belongs to the borage family. It’s closely related to echium vulgare, or viper’s bugloss, a British wildflower with 3ft-tall spikes of blue or purple flowers found on cliffs and dunes.
LIKE its compact cousin, the tree echium is a magnet for wildlife. Butterflies,bees,hummingbird hawk moths and other insects are drawn in great numbers to their nectar-rich flowers. Even after the blooms fade, birds will drop by to feast on the plants’ seeds and sheltering insects.
Straight echium pininana is by far the most popular and readily available, but there are several other forms worth tracking down. Echium ‘red rocket’ has 6ft-tall spikes of strawberry-red flowers above a rosette of narrow grey leaves, while ‘pink fountain’ boasts 15in-wide, 10ft-tall, soft pink skyscrapers in summer.
For my money, best of all is echium candicans (sometimes sold as E. fastuosum), a multi-branched type that grows to about 8ft tall by 10ft across and produces 12in spikes of indigo-blue flowers.
Suited as they are to subtropical displays, echiums like to rub shoulders with palms, bananas and other exotics. The towering stems of tree echiums make excellent punctuation points in beds or borders, or can be planted as specimens in their own right.
Young plants are available now. Put them in warm, light positions, sheltered from the wind. They will thrive in sandy or stony soil, or any other free-draining ground.
Echiums will survive temperatures down to about -5C, so can often be left unprotected in warmer areas. Gardeners in colder parts should protect plants during the winter by loosely covering with fleece. Remove during the day if the weather is warm to let light and air reach the leaves.
Unfortunately, tree echiums are monocarpic, which means plants will die once they finish flowering. Don’t worry – they are prolific self-seeders. Either leave the resulting seedlings to grow where they happen to be, or move them while young to better spots.