A native plant to the Canary Islands, the Echium Pininana or Giant Viper's Bugloss is also know as the tree echium and pine echium.
Grown across the UK in gardens, the Echium Pininana is fast becoming an endangered species through the loss of its native laurel forests.
It does prefer the southern end of the UK, due to its more maritime and temperate climate. It takes a few years for the plant to potentially produce a flower spike of purple blue flowers, as it may not produce more than a few silvery green leaves at first.
Properties
This is a half hardy perennial, but it is suggested that leaving the plant outside during the colder months will encourage a hardier plant to produce. The Echium Pininana is self seeding so the new plants should be hardier due to natural selection.
Alternatively the plant can be bought inside.
There are 25 seeds per packet.