Re: Echium Problems

I live in Sunset zone 24 and have sandy loam.  Several years ago I planted
two Echium pininana.  One was in an area that was watered once or twice a
week during summer.  It grew to about 4 foot looking quite happy but then
died before blooming.  The other was watered once or twice a month and grew
to 6 or 7 feet but fasciated and unlike some plants that fasciate the Echium
pininana was ugly so I wasn't unhappy when it also died before blooming. I
may try again as a friend who lives in Mendocino always has seedlings and I
love the plant when it's healthy.  I've had no problems with E. handiensis
or E. fastuosum.

Janet Ter Veen
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Mariani" <andimar@mindspring.com>
To: <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
Sent: Friday, May 09, 2003 11:35 AM
Subject: 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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