LOL!! Reading the subject line, I was reminded of an article on Dan Hinkley's website last fall where he returned from one of his travel adventures in late November to find his echiums reduced to mush. He vowed several times in the article never to be swayed into attempting to grow these tempermentally elusive plants in the Northwest again!

The last two winters have not been kind to echiums here. A large one inground in Lynnwood made it through the winter of '05 in good shape (relatively) only to succumb to a late cold snap in early spring. Last winter was a joke as far as echiums were concerned, even those in containers with attempted winter protection.

It's a noble undertaking and one that I and few other weird fellow gardeners are attempting yet again, primarily as container plants (E. pininana) with the ability to move them into a warmer condition should the weather not cooperate. We are trying a few in greenhouse conditions as well. Should they survive the winter, we'll plant them out to see if blooms can be coaxed from them before they finally expire.

It has happened. I've seen some impressive clumps of fastuosum in bloom in a local Magnolia garden. One often sees examples of echiums being grown in maritime UK gardens, so it shouldn't be that big of a stretch to get them to succeed here, provided we have what could be considered a mild or even "normal" winter.

Have gotten wildpretii to bloom a few times over the years, but more often even a fairly mild winter will do them in. Easy to grow, otherwise.

I planted Echium russicum this spring but don't hold out much hope of it surviving the winter, it's in a protected area and I'll give it some extra protection for the winter, we'll see what happens.

A......

I grow Echium and I even have a couple of them in the ground that survived this past winter without protection. Don't ask me what variety, but they are obviousley very hardy. I also have a couple of the more tender species growing in pots in my greenhouse. They definately are a good plant to try in your best microclimate. The Echium I have in the ground is in close proximity to my Brahea edulis. I planted that palm in 1995 and it continues to flourish. Living very close to the ocean on a island sometimes has it's benefits when it comes to pushing the envelope. Cheers, Joe

In the 10 or 12 years, I've grown them, I've had them make it through the 2 winters it seems to take to get blooming size ( one year to get established, second year big enough to bloom) twice. It's been pretty unusual to have 2 mild enough winters in a row to have them bloom but when they do the show goes on for weeks and they are quite impressive here.