Gondwanaland Trading Company
From the Ends of the Earth, to the Beginning of Time!

Tower of Jewels

(Echium pinnata )
Echium pinnata

We were exploring the island of Madeira in the North Atlantic Ocean driving from Ponte da Cruz to Ponte São Jorge and as we rounded a bend in the road we found ourselves head to head with a speeding, wildly careening car coming right at us. Our driver cranked the wheel hard to the right and we shot off the road onto the shoulder in a cloud of dust coming to a grinding halt against the rock cut of the road. The other car shot past us and drove straight off the road at full speed into the bushes and came to a stop. We all jumped out the left side of our vehicle and ran to check on the driver of the other car. Needless to say he was feeling no pain as he was profoundly inebriated!   As we waited for road service we walked around and collected seeds from the beautiful Echium pinnata and counted our blessings that no one was killed! The massive spikes of lavender flowers, often reaching 6 feet high appear each spring. This plant is a bi-annual and is self sowing. Before it blooms it looks like a palm out of Jurassic park forming a giant bare trunk with a large head of pinate leaves. In bloom, it is undeniably an eye stopper, with its dense panicles of deep blue forget-me-not type flowers borne terminally above massive branches of dusty linear leaves and is a magnet for hummingbirds, bees and butterflies, is deer resistant, hardy and drought tolerant. It needs full sun and good drainage. You can purchase these unique plants in Quart containers for $19.99

Tower of Jewels

Tower of Jewels

$19.99