Hardiness of echium fastuosum ?

[pontus]

Hello everyone,

today I purchased a superb potted specimen plant of echium fastuosum.

I have read quite a bit of contradictory information on the internet as regarding its hardiness. Some say it is hardy to -15, some say -5, while others say that it will get damaged below 5°c...

does anyone have experience with this fabulous plant and its hardiness? this winter we only had -6°c as coldest and barely any frosts, while other years we can have -15°c...it would be a shame to loose it...it is in a very big pot, so i can always plunge the pot in the ground and bring it into a frost free location in winter if needed, but if it is hardy with cover, I would rather plant it out in the spot in full sun I have for it...

Pontus

[johnralphcarpenter]

Echium fatuosum, Pride of Madeira, as the name suggest comes from Madeira. It is a handsome shrub but not hardy in my experience. I would overwinter somewhere frost free.

[Tim Ingram]

Give it the biggest pot you have and then one bigger again! It is a wonderful plant but will only take a few degrees of frost - almost worth building a mini-greenhouse over for the winter because in flower it would make a real talking point in the garden! Plants of Echium pininiana have survived outside in our garden this very mild winter but usually succumb below about -5°C.

[majallison]

Yes, it's really not hardy, even a degree or two of frost does for it; but I've a number of Echium pininana x wildprettii that have survived in the garden so far this winter... very excited at the prospect of flowers in a month or two