Bumblebee magnet

Giant Viper's-bugloss (Echium pininana)

Among the plants flowering in the garden at the moment are a trio of Giant Viper's-bugloss (Echium pininana). I say "at the moment", but in reality, they've all been blooming for well over a month now, slowly thrusting upwards as row upon row upon row of blossoms open. The tallest plant now stretches nearly 14 feet (more than 4 metres) skywards! The thousands of individual flowers attract hordes of bumblebees. Hoverflies find them equally irresistible. The plant is a biennial, sprouting up about 3 feet (a metre) in the first year with lots of hairy lance-shaped leaves, and developing its prodigious flower spike the second. It will die at the end of the summer, but hopefully by then it will have produced masses of seed which we can plant elsewhere in the garden, and share with other gardening friends. It's toxic to horses, so definitely one you don't want to plant near pastures. Apparently, it doesn't do human digestive tracts much good either, causing stomach upset if eaten. These drought-tolerant giants are native to the Canary Islands. They're not really hardy (it's recommended that they be protected from frost) so it's pretty amazing that all three survived our heavy snows and weeks of sub-freezing temperatures this past winter, considering we did nothing to help them along.