On 2014-07-23 09:39:56 +0000, Chris Hogg said:

On Wed, 23 Jul 2014 09:14:46 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

On 2014-07-23 06:56:12 +0000, Chris Hogg said:

On Tue, 22 Jul 2014 18:42:25 +0100, sacha wrote:

On 2014-07-22 14:26:45 +0000, Chris Hogg said:

On Tue, 22 Jul 2014 15:04:11 +0100, Jeff Layman
wrote:

On 22/07/2014 14:39, Sacha wrote:
Echium piniana seems to be setting seed nicely.

Doesn't that mean that half of Devon will be covered in Echium seed?!

You underestimate it's seeding capabilities :-)

Watch out - coming your way! ;-)


They're here already. Just goes to show how far and how fast they
spread! :-)

Well you can't say you weren't warned! ;-)


Just to be serious for a moment, I used to grow E. fastuosum down
here, but they are a touch tender and I lost mine due to frost. I
actually prefer it to pininana, especially if you have a good colour
form, with deep blue flowers. Pininana is a bit hardier, and looks
best when grown in groups of several plants IMO, when they resemble a
herd of triffids! Have you come across E. wildprettii? It's a rosy-red
flowered one, resembling pininana, but smaller. Also a bit tender.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echium_wildpretii. Our local nursery used
to stock it, but not ATM. Plant World do seeds, apparently
http://tinyurl.com/pmserk2.

We've seen E. wildprettii on Tresco but don't have it here. I must
confess I don't like it because the colour doesn't appeal to me. I
agree about E. piniana looking best in groups but their tendency to put
themselves where they want to after a few seedings, means you don't
always get what you want! In my Jersey garden I planted 3 one year and
ended up with about 3000 the next year! I love E. fastuosum and think
it's a remarkable form. We saw a very deep blue on Tresco on the path
that led to the old hotel. With permission, Ray took some cuttings from
it and brought them on and they've done wonderfully this year,
flowering very generously. He covered them all with fleece this winter
but needn't have bothered as it ws so mild. It was a deeper colour
than most others on the island but that might have been due to the
sandy soil, as it was one of the wild ones. I also remember seeing an
E. piniana that was pink down one side and blue the other - very
strange it looked, too. Here's our Echium fastuosum earlier this year,
just as they were opening - bee magnet, too, I may say!
http://i60.tinypic.com/21crrrt.jpg
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk