Genus: Echium

I hope so, it's done great so far. But we are supposedly in for a cold winter so i have wrapped him up in fleece. I have 5 others all grown at the same time, that are a third of the size and in the sun, this one is on the shady side of the garden.

It will flower next year if it survives the winter T&T. Although technically a biennial it usually takes 3 years here. I have an Alba that I am watching with great anxiety, that should flower next year (it's third).

John.

You might be ok, I live in Cowes, IOW and people growing them here don't bother. But if ever you are unsure, fleece it!

Bluespruce, i agree.

What got me was going back to the intro.

"Do I leave it to chance or spend £20.00 on a large pop up fleece cover."

Twenty pounds and I can't get one buck for mine! Something is very wrong here. Now I understand.

Considering our own arctic outbreak I might just end up tucking into those fleeces of mine. The lanoline might just be good for my winter skin.

What more can one ask for. A bottle of whiskey and 15 bags of fleece. I can survive 7 days of this.

Herb

The irony was mine Herb.........I think we could have made a good blog out of this one.

Herb
if you look at one of my photos you can see a plastic greenhouse with a fleece inner lining~you can buy heavier weights which give better protection.
~it's obviously a UK thing!

Gee, you guys had me going there. I was puzzling about throwing fleeces over plants. Too wet and heavy thought I , but one never knows about other cultures.

Sarraceniac " Different kind of fleece Skyline. Thin knitted gauze like material just to keep the frost off. Very light and actually lets diffused light through. Usually made from a man made yarn so it dries quickly."

That was no Irony -- just a major bit of confusion. Something I am good at. RE: Mark Twain, I just went to the Library book sale to stock up on some reading material should the weather become as nasty as they say.

One other GREAT American writer who no-one ever talks about is Lafcadio Hearn. 'Japan's Great Interpreter.' He moved to Japan. He literally became Japanese, writing in Japanese he became beloved by the people In his American days he was one of the best translators of French.He wrote Chinese and Japanese Ghost stories and one of his American books was 'Stray Leaves from Strange Literature.'

He is totally forgotten in America and I try every time to collect any book I can find. This is very hard. Our Library doesn't have one book of his. Even Edward Abby who died just a few years ago -- dribblings. Edward Abby was a God to me.

Herb

LOL.

Or anecdote even......it's ok I'm sober now :o)

Skyline,
great antidote about the fleeces, but I was being just a little ironic, I had visions of Treesandthings having to 'flip the suckers' to shear his own fleece just to keep his beloved Echium warm for the winter. :o)

The only American who ever understood irony was Mark Twain. And he is dead.

Bluespruce,

:-) This is such a memory for me. Verle, knowing my love of this job duty, would actually phone me the night before so I could have pleasant dreams.

I always would get bruised. It was a job to whine about!

We, meaning I also had to do the hoof trimming. I do still have twenty bags of fleece remaining. It is incredible wool. Some are chocolate brown, some are gold and most are a mixture.

They are not suitable for normal knitting, but still can be used to make pictures. I don't know the name of this, but I gae a friend of mine three different fleeces. She would stick some of the material through a fabric, then back up and knot it.Turned out very pretty.

I was also ready to felt some. Hot water in the bathtub, then running the fleece in a peat roller over the lawn. It would make some great hats. Another friend did this in a different manner. She had head molds and put the shrunken felt and made hats.

I seriously couldn't sell them for 1.00!

Skyline's comments about the sheep fleece is about the best thing I've read on GoY for some time :o)

Fleece ordered on line should be here to day or tomorrow.

Different kind of fleece Skyline. Thin knitted gauze like material just to keep the frost off. Very light and actually lets diffused light through. Usually made from a man made yarn so it dries quickly.

looking very promising...

This is truely a U.K. thing. Not at all done or used in the USA.

I used to shear fifteen four horned sheep, Churo, from the Navaho nation. Wicked horns and often weighing up to 200 lbs. I had to flip those suckers, then proceed.

Those fleeces were coarse and not easily used in the normal manner so the fleeces were not sellable. Still we could not even get 1.00 for them. I took two truckloads back to my barn and use them today to mulch the soil. Nitrogen delivered as well as some useage for birds.

I also use the fleece in the shipping ofmy plants. Stuffed around the 4" pot and rubber banded it is GREAT. One lady, however gave me a neutral for using this ANIMAL product. Go figure. I also use Lavender stems, dried to be my stuffing material. No plastic, no bubble wrap for me.

I do hang small amounts under the eaves so birds can use this material in their nests. They really appreciate it!

~that's a good idea Poaannua!

I think you should cover it somehow because I lost one when it was growing in plastic tunnel. This is North Hampshire, so you may be alright but this has been a particularly cold Autumn which makes the ground colder than usual so beware. Could you not make a tripod tent with Bamboo canes to support the fleece with polythene round it, I seem to remember the leaves were easily damaged

Hi trees and things
How will you feel if you lose it?
If not feeling like that is worth £20 go out and buy some heavyweight fleece from ebay and wrap it in it several times and then tie with string.I always use long lengths either double or triple. The covers are only single and I lost an orange tree I have had for 30 odd years because i was too reliant on something which wasn't as thick as it needed to be,You will find you can get loads for your £20.

If you've got a couple of old blankets or curtains, cover them with that to keep off the worst of the weather if you don't want to lash out on a giant fleece

Of course that is what the blog is about isn't it?

I take it you mean Echiums Andrea, not Puyas. Lol.

Make sure you have enough room for them, they get huge, plus they self seed everywhere, they grow like weeds where I live on the I of W. The pink ones Sarrceniac are 'Wildpretti' and the blue ones which are smaller are called 'Candicans' or Fatsuom all related to our native Buglass. The leaves aren't spikey as much as they have rough irritant hairy surfaces which stick in you like little splinters.......itchy!!!

Hi Sandown, welcome to GOY. Alene is right i can grow them outside. i get lots of seedlings self sown seedlings. i also grow them for my nursery. do you get self seeders?

Hi there
~Sandra in Pembrokeshire West Wales is able to grow them outside as they can in Cornwall.~

Good angle on this Echium.

i have the odd one die off. i don't understand either...

Echium Pininana.

I have had the same problem one or two just die. I have checked for vine werill in the soil or pots but nothing. some of my plants have large bites out of them and i have found at night one or two large long grey catipillars but not many to weaken the plant. i have also noted only one out of a group die and this is very quick maybe over to days . Any answers would be welcome

If you Google puya you will see that they are south american and the spines are very VERY evil. They point inwards towards the plant so if one 'grabs' you the temptation is to push the grabbed part into the plant to unhook. Then more grab you.

I treat mine with great respect and will post some piccies probably next year when they come out of the g.house. The flowers are amazing. Like wax.

puyas. Sarraceniac. is this because they look like they have leaves a bit like a Yucca, very sharp?

What is PUYAS, Sarraceniac? Nice looking lad, your Harry. Plants look great, too.

'Prickly though, so mind your fingers.'

Sorry. I tend to put things obscurely.

'It is closely related to the triffid.'

P.S. Don't get puyas with children. I speak as someone with both grand-kids and puyas.

hi harry

I believe it is a blue echium, not sure which variety. This is his second year next year will be his third (flower time). I have 6 in total that have survived the last two years, this one being the tallest. if it turns out pink or white then i will still be happy. Prickly though, so mind your fingers.

lovely!

Nice way to show the size and both are real cuties.....

Is it a blue pininana Trees&t? I put a white one in 2 years ago which I thought would flower this year but occasionally they turn out to be TRI-enniels, so I've got to nurse it through another winter. I just bought some pink and blue seeds on eBay but unfortunately it came all mixed together so, if it germinates I will have to bed out loads to be sure of getting a pink one, which is what Boss lady wants.

Tell Harry not to get too close to it. It is closely related to the triffid.

Uh-oh... they come from the Canary Islands, Flcrazy...just a few miles east of you!... will we be seeing echium pininana in your tropical bed? I sure would give them a try if I were gardening in N.C. LOL!!!

Amazing looking plants, they have such an architectural shape, very eye-catching !

I dont feed them with anything apart from what nature throws at them. Fingers crossed they will make it through the winter. I havn't had to wrap them in anything yet hopefully it will be another mild winter. next year should be flower time.

i have got some in pots but because we had frost to -6 last year They are going into the greenhouse-do you feed them with anything and when if so?i was planning to water quite sparingly?

is the stem soft?

They are very top-heavey plants. Wind rock might be damageing the roots.

Well before you start throwing your money at the problem by buying remidies and fertilisers and god knows what else, go through the fundementals, research the optimum growing conditions of Echium pininana, see if these growing conditions correspond to what you are subjeting it too. Assess the the soil, light, moisture content, wind exposure etc.

Ok let me know how you get on, I'm sure we can figure this out.

Thanks, but the plant in question is less than one year old. It hasn't flowered yet. It has just keeled over before it's time! I really don't know what's going on. The same thing happened last year. Any ideas?

Hi I don't mean to state the obvious but you are aware of the fact that echium pininana are bienniel and that they are meant to keel over and die in the second year, which is why they are so good at seeding themselves throughout people's gardens to such an extent that they become like a weed.

I hope this helped.

Yes, very nice

They are but they are native to the Canaries, so have to be carefull during the winter. I have got away with doing nothing so far but fingers crossed for this winter. They take up to 3 yrs to flower.

oh i love this are the leaves on it all year round.

Should be about 12ft.

Cut the dead flowers (if any) off during summer and prune back hard in autumn to keep its shape. These plants don't grow well in pots as their 2-3m high and 1-2m wide frame needs to be kept within a spacious garden bed.

A BIG PLANT i see, will the flowers be very tall..chezs

Me and my shadow! Brilliant picture Jack looks like a toddler compared to that plant! Hel.xxx.

Can't go without a cuppa LOL

You obviously garden the same way I do, there is always a cup of tea nearby.

Every job is helped by a cuppa :-)

like the take. x

Looks gr8 :-)

Wow! A great photo.

Amazing.

Very interesting!

brilliant photo

Woah! Triffid? Look out Jack!

Looks like something out of Dr Seuss.
Brilliant !

Lovely photo Sandra

amazing plant...will watch future posts with interest.

What a stunning photo, well done Sandra you have done a really good job in that garden.Hel.xxx.

these all selfseeded two or three years ago from two that i grew from seed. the first year they grow to about three foot. but they look tatty in the winter! and sometimes the take three years to flower. now hopefuly they will seed again!

Amazing size ... look like giant rockets.

I saw sum of these @Eden Sandra the purple colour is Fab :)

How long does it take for them to grow this tall?

hi Bren
i would get them in the ground as soon as possible. full sun and well drained soil

It's like those new faces I've been learning about : ) lol