Known as the Giant Tree Echium, pininana is spectacular and will ensure you are the envy of your neighbours. Making a dramatic statement in any well-drained garden, Echium pininana are majestic and happy in borders or large containers. Nectar and pollen are produced in abundance to entice bees and butterflies who will arrive in numbers into your garden.Large, hairy, grey-green foliage forms a beautiful, palm-tree-like rosette, the perfect base as tall, 35cm wide towers grow, tapering as they rise to around 400cmtall, becoming adorned by bell-shaped blooms all summer, from June to September. Echium are a genus within the Boraginaceae family, native to the Canary Islands. The name is derived from the Greek word 'ekhis' meaning viper which is partly used when referring to its common name Vipers Bugloss. The name originates because forking at the end of each flower resembles a viper's tongue. Perfect for growing in a sheltered bed, border, or large heavy pot, preferring moist, but well-drained soil in sun or dappled shade. Echium pininana is a half-hardy biennial which would welcome some protection from the hardest, coldest frosts in winter when the temperatures dip below -5 degrees. Echium however will often happily self-seed so you are sure to have more plants the following year. The eventual height reached is 3-4m and spreading to 60-80cm.
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