Upright plant with several stems per plant.  Large, very attractive, dark-red flower spikes appear in June.

Grows to 40" in height.  In 1999, made the mistake of planting these on the north side of a shrub rose bush... the flower spikes began growing horizontally and twisting trying to find the sun instead of growing straight up.  Moved them to full sun, away from the rose bush, much better.

Hardy zone ?   I have one reference book that lists this as hardy zone 9 !  Phillips and Rix list as 'Hardy to -20C or less'.  

We grew this from seed in spring, 1998, and bloomed in June, 1999; and plants we grew from seed in 1999 bloomed in 2000. Echiums are usually described as biennial, but Phillips and Rix write E. russicum may be perennial.  I certainly hope it is.  Until it proves to be perennial for us we'll continue to grow some plants each spring for blooms the following year.

Glen's score:  9.

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