echiums, blue spikes for dry gardens

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At the Huntington earlier in the week…

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Echiums getting the formal treatment.

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Formal, informal, echiums never hit a false note. They’re some of the wildest, spikiest blues around. Sometimes shading into violet, with other species spiking in white, red. Many are island species that love coastal California.

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These are big plants, bigger than my small garden can handle. A couple Echium wildpretii is all I have room for at the moment. The above photo of E. wildpetii from 2018 shows that even without flowering they’re impressive plants.

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with cistus at the San Francisco Botanical Garden
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Echium gentianoides ‘Tajinaste’
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Echium simplex
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‘Star of Madeira’

For stunning leaves, flowers, for full hot sun…echium.

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4 Responses to echiums, blue spikes for dry gardens

  1. Kris P says:

    I don’t think I’ve ever seen the white-flowered species before. I haven’t tried Echium wildpretii either and I need to do something about that. I’m running out of room too…

  2. I’ve spent plenty of time wishing I could grow the big blue spiky Echium, but I never stopped to think about how BIG they get. Maybe it’s good I can’t grow them. I do have a couple of E. wildpretii I managed to get through winter and I’m very happy about that.

  3. Denise says:

    @Kris, echium are a perfect fit for your fast-draining hilltop.
    @Loree, that’s amazing that EW made it through Feb/March!

  4. Elaine says:

    Quite stunning. I grew a dwarf echium variety as a container annual one year that was quite pretty but not nearly as commanding as these. The foliage reminds me of an undersea anemone.

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