Re: Question
Janbe Reese wrote:
>Is there a red echium? I saw a plant with a dramatic inflorescence that
>looked like a red Christmas tree. It was 7 feet tall. I thought it might
>be a Puya. Someone else identified it as a Echium. I keep seeing blue
>Echium where the inflorescence is the same shape but never any other
>color. This appeared to jave a single inflorescence to a plant, as opposed
>to the Eschium that I see that have muliplie inflorescences. I saw this in
>Lompoc Ca (Sunset Zone 24). A man there working in his yard said it came
>easily from seed, but could not remember the name.
This is probably a good colour form of E. wildprettii. It is a
variable species with some plants showing almost pink or pale red
flowers, whereas really good forms can be a rich, purplish red. As
with most of the larger growing species, it is essentially monocarpic,
usually flowering in it's second year. Most of these types tolerate
light frosts down to around 27F possibly a touch more. Whilst growing
and producing the rosette, they appreciate moderately moist conditions
and will reward by producing quite large and extremely handsome
plants, although not as big or imposing as E. pininana. Its colour
makes this species stand out and of the monocarps, it is probably my
favourite.
HTH
Dave Poole
TORQUAY UK
