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KING KONG Echium Pininanas
Moving on from the previous thread “huge Aliums”, these Echium Pininana are gems that have taken a couple of years to grow, as you know they are Biannual so demand a lot of fannying around with frost protection (including fleece bags & bamboo steaks and purpose built frames) what a ball ache !! But the end result is SO Satisfying. GREAT Pollinators for the bees and butterflies, even the small birds like pecking at that multitude of miniature flowers. I think there’s even a “Candidans” or Hybrid in there.
These beauties have grown to 11’8” (still 8” more in the last two weeks) 3.6m. I’m very happy with the display even though they are starting to wain, still very Grand but have lost some of their Lustr. They started showing in early May, so if I have 6-8 weeks of colour, I’ll be happy enough. But I’ll cut RIGHT back on growing these “Empire state building”….style plants as they take up so much light and space.
SO………….I’ve had my gloat, let’s face it, I’m not a humble guy am I ?
Happy gardening folks.
SO………….I’ve had my gloat, let’s face it, I’m not a humble guy am I ?
Happy gardening folks.
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Saw some fantastic Echiums in Minehead this summer.
I can just hear the bees buzzing on those, the sound is almost deafening.
Someone asked if they could grow one in a pot!
@StephenSouthwest. Are you further down in Cornwall?
so the scenario is: it’s the middle of the frost season which can go on for Five months if you’re unlucky. Let’s say the Echium is surrounded on four sides by bamboo cane’s higher than the plant, covered with a 1.5metre x 3metre green fleece frost protection bag. ( my local garden centre does a pack of 3 for 8 quid, bargain. So I’ve got 4 x packs plus 70 metres of white fleece. Which was a bit O.T.T. But, you can never have too much fleece…………except in my occasion) All that done,all the green fleece bags are flapping in the wind, it all looks a bit like a weird oversized “Barbara Hepworth” sculpture, all your neighbours think you’re a bit of a twat for going outside in the pouring rain just to climb a large wobbly step ladder that sinks lopsidedly in the soft mud, threatening to throw you into the rose bush beside it. Ohh the drama.
All said and done they’re all covered and only 50% have got really wet but you know that tonight the possible / impending/ forecast killer frost is going to be thwarted (even though you do look like a wet rag.
You wake up in the morning to a heavy frost, even with a smattering of snow. O.M.GOD you utter, “glad I got up in the dark and did the night creepy, head torch, fleece thing, they’ll all be fine now”. A week later the forecast is for sunny spells and moderate breeze for a few days. Up the ladder you go and horror of horrors the weight of the snow and rain has made the top SAG DOWN into a saucer shape, touching……… NO, Bearing Down onto the crown. You quickly and IMMEDIATELY lift off the covering like an Elizabethan bouffant dress, not to damage the gentle fronds that are adorning it’s length………
Blow me down, the top crown is all Grey & withered where it’s been laying in the damp. No amount of fluffing will revive the once juicy bud, now turned flakey grey and even black and burnt. The next day you’re left with jolly green giant with no chance of completion. No adulation here. A week later and most of the plant is grey, withered and………….Dead.
The other 50% had the bamboo canes high enough past the top of the crown of the Echium, even with a growth of 1 x foot whilst covered and tied at the bottom, NO chance of the fleece sagging down and touching the top of the plant.
O.k. I may have around 100 bamboo canes of varying sizes now but it’s all to avert fleece/crown contact. And you KNOW it’s worth it.
So, good luck growing these beauties.
Devon, but with a warm microclimate...
Not like here, all my lupins flattened and snapped off in the gales yesterday, the foxgloves all bend one way. And it was blooming cold.