Echium Problems

I cultivate several species of Echium in my garden, including E.
candicans (E. fastuosum), E. handiensis, E. pininana, E. wildpretii, and
what appears to be hybrids between the two latter species.   From a
strictly design standpoint,  I find them  fascinating  plants with
stunning colors and striking sculptural quality.  The towering forms are
dramatically statuesque,  like the spires of Gaudi's unfinished
cathedral in Barcelona, and the rambling branched forms are a source of
intense winter color displaying an  iridescent pallette of analogous
shades/tints of blue, purple and mauve.

An earlier post, either here or elsewhere, made whimsical reference to a
"Dr. Suess's Garden" and requested suggestions of some weird and
wonderful plant forms that might qualify.  I certainly would submit the
'Tower of Jewels' as being right at home with the equally bizzarre
Truffula trees in Dr. Seuss's imaginary, Lorax-tended garden.

They are excellent landscape elements but so very difficult to manage,
probably better suited to more flexible but less tidy landscapes than
the well-kept Mediterranean garden.  Consider the biennial types.  In
their second season,  they form spectacular, blooming towers, briefly
becoming majestic landmarks, but then die off, only to resurrect
themselves elsewhere, two years later, in the wrong spot.  My latest
frustration is a E. pininana/E wildpretii hybrid,  a magificent
specimen, 14 feet tall and counting, that decided to establish itself
within the dripline of my Eucalyptus torquata, and the two plants appear
to pushing and shoving each other, vying or attention.

Echiums in general are also very prone to crown and root rots.  This
year one of my E. wildpretti began to bloom beautifully, then
unespectedly gave up the ghost thereby negating two years of cultivation
and anticipation...then there's  also the problem of disposing of the
hefty, tree-like biomass.  Both E. wildpretti and E. pininana are also
very susceptible to what I suspect is fasciation.  As the basal clump of
foliage begins its ascent, it  suddenly "morphs" into something
resembling a shepard's crook, blooming only on the outer curve like that
of a gigantic fiddleneck plant.  Again, one must wait until the second
year before this disfiguring problem appears, and as many as a third of
my plants are effected. The flower stalks of E. candicans rarely
fasciate, but these older ramblers will often die off in one spot while
developing  new branches in another, and  the general visual effect is
often  that of a scruffy, unkept shrub.  Echiums are simply not for
gardeners who crave orderliness.

As unpredictable as they are, echiums, I believe, remain a genus of
great landscape value.  But are there others who also seen  them as a
source of great frustration?  Have others in the group had similar
problems and experiences with echiums?






 An excellent landscape element i and image of a  na  Less tidy garden
landscape scene imaginary, as sthe naural habitat of the mythical lorax
than a well-kept Mediterranean garden. Bizzare landsxcapes
Images of
How does one contend with what amounts to stately landmarks that roam
your garden from year to to year My   Shepard's crook or  flowering like
a monstruous  fiddleneck,  Fasciation.  A pallette of ananlogous
colors.  Moavi  Unpredictable buggers that they are..  Stunning colors
and striking sculptural quality.  Frustrating for those gardeners who
craved ordliness.
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