Echium wildepretii x Echium pininana 'Pink Fountain'

Echium 'Pink Fountain' is a fabulous hybrid between the giant blue-flowering Echium pininana and the very large but not-quite-so-giant reddish-pink flowering Echium wildepretti. This is one of the most spectacular plants you are ever likely to grow in the UK and it is not often available. An enormous conical tower of pink pollinator-friendly flowers up to 4m tall! There are however, a few points to remember. Neither of these Echiums are exactly renowned for their hardiness and Echium wildeprettii is noticeably less hardy that Echium pininana. So one of the best ways to grow these plants is in a large container than you can move around and can keep under glass during the winter. That's a very large container. About 25 Litres should do it - or larger if you can manage to still move a larger pot: 50 Litres is even better but a 50 Litre pot is starting to get rather heavy.

The other thing to remember about Echiums is that they hate being transplanted. Cut off any lower leaves that are yellowing to reduce transpiration loss and give it lots of water before, during and after transplanting. Doing it on a cool cloudy day or late in the day is another useful tip. Once it has recovered from the shock of being transplanted keep it well-watered in full sun.

These are large plants that have already been over-wintered. In other words, they could flower for you this year thus saving you the bother of having to overwinter them... I say could because alhough both Echium pininana and Echium wildepretii are biennials I find they quite often grow into a third year before flowering.

And when it flowers.. there is only one word: magnificent!