Echium pininana

Big, bold and beautiful shrubby biennial or perennial. It likes well drained soils and lots of sun and is quite happy where soils are dry and poor. By nature a coastal plant, the sandy, windy conditions of beach gardens are very much to its liking. It’s an excellent foliage plant with felty deep green hairy leaves, as well as having tall spikes of purple-blue flower heads in spring. Great on banks surrounded by groundcovering, sun loving daisy flowers such as arctotis, gazanias and osteospermums.