Learning about Growing Echiums

Lots of people who notice plants will have been impressed by Echiums growing and flowering in gardens and in the wild in Cornwall and Devon. With their imposing blue spires, they are a feature of many gardens in the south west, whereas in sunny Swindon, far from winter Gulf Stream influences  coastal regions benefit from, we sometimes have a sharp overnight drop in temperature. With any number of tender plants, I deal with this by bringing pots of succulents and Pelargoniums into the garage where they happily overwinter.
I was thrilled to be given a small Echium as a birthday present at the end of March last year, planting it out into a flower bed when it got a bit bigger, but by October, it was really quite big and I didn't think it would appreciate being dug up and brought into the garage. After the first frost, the leaves looked a darker green than they had done before it, so I decided to have a go at covering it with some bubble wrap. It spent the winter looking a bit like a bubble wrapped tepee, not a very professional looking job, but did it work?

 Well with the very warm weather over Easter, I decided to investigate, and first signs were very promising, the apical shoot looked really vigorous

 and here it is with the bubble wrap removed, it looks fabulous, and has come through the winter very well, there are quite a lot of dead lower leaves, but the overall state of the Echium is that it's very healthy. I did have to give it a wrap up for 2 evenings this week when we had a frost, so I'll have to watch out for frosts.

 I'm hoping it will flower this year, I looked it up, and think it's an Echium pininana and may grow to 8 feet tall. Photographs aren't that good, but this gives an idea of the splendour of the plant:

Photos to follow in a few months!!!