Grow and Care for Pride of Madeira

Grow Echium in full sun on draining ground. The tag may also say Pride of Madeira. Match the kind to your winter before you plant.

Give it full sun, sharp drainage, and a winter that matches the kind

Echium wants bright, draining ground, not a wet border. Kinds range from biennial wildflowers to short-lived shrubs and frost-tender towers, so the winter has to match the plant you bought. [1] Viper’s bugloss takes poor, lean soil and fewer flowers if you feed it; deadhead if you do not want a seed meadow. [2] Pride of Madeira is a coastal dry-sun shrub: low water once set, gloves for stiff hairs, toxic if eaten, and often done in about five years. Short cold snaps around 25 to 30°F can pass on a drained site. [3] In California it is rated Limited and was not added to the do-not-plant list, but it still reseeds. Cut flower stalks before seed if you garden near open space. [4]

1. Name the kind: hardy bugloss, Red Feathers, Pride of Madeira, or a tower.
2. Give it full sun and ground that drains after rain.
3. Wear gloves when you handle bristly stems.
4. Water new plants through the first dry spells, then ease off.
5. Cut spent spikes before seed if you need to contain Pride, or if you do not want bugloss volunteers.

Pair it with other dry-sun plants

Partners should want the same sun and lean water: lavenders, rosemary, and other Mediterranean shrubs you can still weed around. Do not mix it on the same hose with a moist shade border. Give Pride room — little grows in its shade once it is large.

Plant after frost risk, at the same depth as the pot

Set a nursery plant after hard frost risk on a mild site, or keep tender kinds in pots until then. The crown sits at the same depth it had in the pot. Deep taproots resent late moves, so plant young.

1. Confirm you have Echium, not Siberian bugloss or borage.
2. Pick full sun and draining ground, or a pot you can move.
3. Wait until frost risk has passed for Pride and towers. Hardy bugloss can go in earlier on open ground.
4. Water the pot, then slide the root ball out intact.
5. Dig a hole no deeper than the pot. Set the crown at the same depth as the nursery mix.
6. Backfill with the soil you dug, and water to close air pockets.

Use a draining pot if you need to move it from frost

A gritty mix and real drainage holes keep the crown from sitting wet. Move Pride and towers to a bright, barely frost-free place for winter. Keep the mix on the dry side while they rest.

Sow hardy bugloss in place, or start tender kinds under cover

Scatter hardy bugloss on draining ground in fall or early spring so a rosette can form before the flowering year. Start tender kinds in a free-draining mix under cover, keep the surface barely moist, and plant out after frost. Towers and many biennials take two seasons to spike.

Cut spent spikes, then tidy Pride in late fall

Cut faded flower stalks to limit seed and to keep the shrub from looking ragged. On Pride, a late-fall cut also holds size and encourages growth lower on the branches. Towers that flower once often die after that spike — collect seed if you want another plant. Hardy bugloss can be cut back in late winter before new growth.

1. Wear gloves.
2. Cut spent spikes before nutlets shed if you need to contain seed.
3. On Pride, cut back in late fall to reduce bulk.
4. Leave a few bugloss heads only where seedlings are welcome and legal.
5. Cut dead hardy stems in late winter.

Not Siberian bugloss, and not borage or forget-me-not

Siberian bugloss is Brunnera: moist shade, heart-shaped leaves, not a dry gravel spike. Borage is an annual herb with edible cucumber-flavored flowers — a different plant and a different water job. Forget-me-not is Myosotis: cool moist ground in the same family, not Pride of Madeira. Some Blue Bedder tags say E. plantagineum; that name is Paterson’s curse, a weedy species, not the compact hardy bugloss on this page. Pride of Barbados is a different shrub entirely.

Hardy bugloss, Red Feathers, Pride of Madeira, or a tower

Sun and drain are shared. Life cycle and frost are not. Do not treat a shop list of extra names as extra plants.

E. vulgare is viper’s bugloss — a biennial-style blue spike for lean sun, also called blueweed on some US weed lists. E. vulgare ‘Blue Bedder’ is a neater selection of the same culture. E. amoenum is lower rusty-rose spikes, still wanting sun and drain. E. candicans is Pride of Madeira, the shrubby coastal spike, also sold under the misapplied name E. fastuosum. E. pininana is tower of jewels — a tall spike for mild, draining gardens, not a hardy northern perennial.

Site it in full sun with sharp drain, match the kind to your winter, wear gloves, and cut spent spikes if you need to contain seed.