I have been in love with echiums since the first time I saw them. They come in different sizes and colours, but their towers of flowers always entrance me. I particularly love the really tall types and every now and again I have attempted to grow them.
I generally can germinate them fairly straigthtforwardly.
I generally can grow them for the first year. They usually need a good two years before they will flower.
They generally die on me in the winter. Gardening is about trial and error and learning from those errors, so last year when I sowed some more seeds I decided to be more cautious. I did plant some out into the parts of the garden where the drainage was better in the hope they would not die (they did die, it was far too wet for too long this winter for that idea to have any merit) and I left some in large pots to overwinter in the greenhouse.
The latter idea was a good plan, the greenhouse ones survived and I planted them out earlier this year. A little too early as we had some late frosts which made me panic a little but thankfully they pulled through.
and I was rewarded with flowers. They are not the tallest echiums in the world, but they survived and flowered so to me they are the most special.
My cup runneth over and of course I want to sow more and get more to reach this point.
For gardening is about trial and error and often just wanting that little bit better next year.
So as I write I have some seeds drying off ready to plant shortly. Wish me luck.