Garden and Flowers

VIPER’S BUGLOSS

Echium plantagineum (Purple Viper’s Bugloss) is a species of Echium, native to western and southern Europe (from southern England south to Iberia and east to the Crimea), northern Africa, and southwestern Asia (east to Georgia). It is an annual or biennial plant growing to 20-60 cm tall, with rough, hairy, lanceolate leaves up to 14 cm long. The flowers are purple, 15-20 mm long, with all the stamens protruding, and borne on a branched spike.

Officially, the name viper’s bugloss is reserved for the native plant Echium vulgare, which tends to grow in places like the sand dunes along the Dutch coast. In gardening circles, however, it is also used for this slightly divergent species from southern Europe, which is also found in poor soil along the coasts of France and southwest England. If grown in richer soil, its foliage develops vigorously at the expense of flowers, and plants are also more likely to be blown over.

Plant breeders have made an effort to produce compact cultivars which also do well in ordinary garden soil. They grow about 12 in tall and are great assets in blue and pink borders, to the satisfaction of butterflies and bees, and bumblebees in particular. Sow directly out-of-doors between March and May and prick out superfluous seedlings rigorously, so that the plants are at least 18 in apart. Only then will they have enough space to spread satisfactorily. Echium plantagineum ‘Bedder Mixture’ is multicolored, but includes white flowers as well as those in shades of mauve, blue, and pink. Echium plantagineum ‘Blue Bedder’ has bright-blue flowers. In fact, the buds of blue-flowering echiums are pink at first, and the faded flowers turn crimson. Echium plantagineum ‘Light Blue bedder’ bears pale sky-blue flowers and goes well with the popular shades of pale yellow, salmon pink and apricot in borders.