Hi! I don't want to derail this thread, and I'm about to head out the door, but I had a ? for you last month>>> https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5247128/wcgypsy-echium-simplex

Aren't those lovely! I'm hopeful, and expecting, E.p. 'Blue Steeple' to spike this year but the dang thing is 8' without a flower spike yet. It didn't like some of our hot, dry weather last year, so it lost some lower leaves; it now looks like a really funky palm imitator, though healthy otherwise. It is behind other plants, so the bare stalk is not really a problem. I am eager to finally see one in bloom.

The various single-spike Echiums seem to be much more commonly grown in your area. I wonder if some of your differing characteristics and colors variations are due to bees frequenting different species. They do hybridize easily.

The E. pininina is the one seen most here and it has certainly colonized the Salmon Harbor location...I've seen only one E. candicans / fastuosum in town..I do have seeds from it (somewhere) and I do have two potted that were given to me...the cobalt blue in color rather than the purplish that I prefer....I grew the wildpretii and may have more one year plants from that .....I also had the one seedling that came up with me and turned out to be what could only have been a seedling from Mr. Happy...I kept that one in a large tub and only recently jerked it because I really didn't like the pink...I'm looking at the seedling grown plants that I have and the ones I gave my neighbor and wondering if they were spontaneous hybrids of Mr. Happy...hoping that my neighbor keeps that huge one at her place upright long enough to get seed from it...she' not really into gardening that much and if it wants to topple, it probably will...I'd told her not to feel bad if she does not like it and wants to pull it, but it's such a kind of neon lavender that I should really get seed from it

One of my favorite plants. I've tried to grow them here in Southern California. I've only had one flower but it went all haywire, certainly not the dramatic stalk I see in the photos. Is it too hot in So Cal? zone 9b Coastal LA.

I grew echiums in Fallbrook...Sunset Zone 23...subtropical...large swaths of E. candicans/ fastuosum, E. 'Star of Madeira', E. 'Mr. Happy', E. vulgare, E. pininina I had just started with, and they were flowering but only about 7' tall...E. simplex (white) was growing and flowering at full height in Encinitas at Quail Gardens (Now San Diego Botanical Garden'). The pininina is what I've seen most here, it's happy in this zone and I've heard it described as invasive here though the only colony I've seen is the one at Salmon harbor.

Also grow E. wildpretii here....