Where is the best place to plant Echium?
Whichever Echium you decide to grow, it will do best planted in well-drained soil in full sun. Remember that winter waterlogging can reduce the hardiness of a plant, so do take care to avoid areas prone to this when planting. Echiums tend to be largely pest and disease free, though you may find slugs and snails develop a taste for their leaves, particularly when young.All Echium need good light levels, warmth and free draining soil to flower and the above information also applies to other varieties. You may need to protect Echium plants through the winter from frost, cold and wet conditions depending on your location in the UK .Overwintering. If you grow Echium in containers, tender species can be moved to a light, frost-free place to protect them from the cold and wet during winter. A heated greenhouse kept above 5°C (41°F) is ideal.Once you have grown this echium to flowering size it will self seed prolifically and, frosts aside, you will never have to plant another as you will always be pulling up surplus seedlings all over the garden. Few plants produce such huge quantities of fertile seed or scatter them so widely.Growing echiums from seed and taking cuttings Keep them in a dry envelope over winter and sow them the following spring to summer. You can take cuttings from shrubbier species such as Echium fastuosum, either as softwood cuttings in May to June or as semi-ripe cuttings from August to September.
Is Echium good for bees?
Echium are drought tolerant and are a great source of nectar for bees and other pollinators. Echiums grow for one year and then flower in the second year. After that they die but there will be plenty of seedlings to chose from. This way you have an echium flowering every year.