More commonly known as Vipers or Buglosses, Echiums are true sun-loving plants – perfect for growing on the Costa Blanca.
Armed with heat-protective foliage and searching taproots, they flourish in dry weather.
Echiums vary between annuals, hardy perennials and semi-evergreens.
Favoured garden varieties tend to be the monocarpic sort; producing leaf mounds in their first year and flowering in the second or third, before setting seed and dying.
Almost all the species are united by a few defining attributes being their showy flowers of white, pink, red or blue; narrow leaves; and tough, wandering stems.
Delivering floral profusion in late May – that often continues well into July and August – that are completely unflustered by extreme heat.
These plants deliver on two main points, as they are easy to grow and prolifically set seed and are supreme magnets for bees, butterflies and all other pollinators to your garden.
Their needs are simple, all they need is poor well-draining soil and a sunny spot. They don’t need feeding or staking.
All Echiums must be handled with gloves, as the coarse hairs can cause skin irritation.
