Echium ‘Cobalt Towers’

This New Zealand introduction created quite a stir when we planted a decent patch of it in the Alexandra Gardens opposite the Arts Centre in Central Melbourne. It makes a shrub some 2 metres wide and 1.5 metres tall from which 2 metre tall columns of deep cobalt blue flowers are produced in spring. After flowering it needs the spent flower stems cut off and a light prune. Most echiums are too frost tender to grow in our region but this will survive heavy frosts when established.