# Bees love Echium wildpretii. (Tower of jewels)



## BeeBop

My mom has a "Tower of jewels" plant (Echium wildpretii) in her yard and it is the most amazing bee buffet I have ever seen. I measured it at 12' 6" tall last month and it's probably 13+' by now. It just hums with bees all day every day and it's been blooming for nearly 2 months. If you live in a happy zone where it will grow I would highly recommend it as a bee friendly plant. It's clearly quite content in zone 9a in California. I may try and plant a row of them for a windbreak near my hives. Wikipedia-Echium wildpretii

Here's my moms Tower of jewels. The bees love the Nasturtiums also...









And here's a little lady feeding on it. One of 100 or more bees that are on it right now. She looks pretty high mileage with those ragged wing tips..


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## beepro

Very nice pics!

Where can I get the seeds or the plantlets?
And how long the plant will live, annual or biannual?


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## tim8557

I just sent this to my son who is an horticulturist to see if it would grow in SW Ohio, and if so, availability.


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## odfrank

If it is 13' tall I wonder if it is Echium pininana instead? You will be disapointed with it as a windbreak. They die after blooming.


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## odfrank

tim8557 said:


> I just sent this to my son who is an horticulturist to see if it would grow in SW Ohio, and if so, availability.


If it gets below 25F for a few days I doubt it will make it.


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## BeeBop

beepro said:


> Where can I get the seeds or the plantlets?
> And how long the plant will live, annual or biannual?


It's a biennial and allegedly flowers the second year then dies. 
This one I think was started last fall so it's not a year old yet but it's obviously flowering anyway. Someone gave it to my mom. It was in a 16" pot (it's still in the pot but is rooted through the drain holes into the ground) and it was maybe 18" tall early this spring. Most of the literature I've found says they grow to be 3' to 10' tall. This one has grown tremendously fast and is currently 14' 5" tall and over 24" diameter at the base of the bloom. 
It's been blooming for 2 full months now and I can't even guess how many thousands of flowers it has on it. It's really quite amazing and the bees seem to think so too.

The seeds are apparently available quite a few places on line.
I suspect that this one will have a ton of seeds at the end of the year. If it does then maybe I'll offer up some of them to interested beeks.



odfrank said:


> If it is 13' tall I wonder if it is Echium pininana instead?


Errr... ummm.... well shoot, now I dunno. :scratch:
Mom said her friend said it was called Tower of Jewels and when I looked that up I came up with Echium wildpretii. But now that I've seen your photo and looked up Echium pininana I'm thinking maybe you're right. Hmm.

What ever it is it sure is a tall one. I hope it produces a lot of seeds.

Here's a current (today) photo of it. It's gotten a lot fatter in the last couple of weeks. The bees are having a great time with it.


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## beepro

Yes, you will have a lot of seeds this season from that plant since the bees are on it.
I would like to have some of its seeds if you don't mind sending.
I can send you the white and/or blue Borage seeds, the nyger seeds, 
and the sainfoin seeds too. I also have the rare purple color collard seeds available now.
PM me if you are interested.


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## BeeBop

Well, this crazy Echium is still blooming. It's been about 3-1/2 months now since it started to bloom.
It's the first thing I find bees on in the morning and the last thing I see bees on at night. They really love it. I'm sure it has had MILLIONS of bee visits by now. It's probably had a million flowers by now with many visits per flower.










And... mom found the tag for it. Heh... "Mr. Happy."
Say, is that an Echium in your pants or are you just happy to see me...?


















I will definitely be planting many of these next year. It's the most amazing bee attractant I've ever seen.


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## odfrank

I sprouted seeds from mine the last month and they came up like a lawn.


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## beepro

Anything that blooms from May til September is a good bee plant for me to
get them through the summer dearth here. Though I don't like the 'hybrid' title that it
may not grow true the next season if you collected the seeds from this year. How come don't 
get the open pollinated, non-hybrid to plant?
I'm going to do so research on ebay to find out.


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## BeeBop

odfrank said:


> I sprouted seeds from mine the last month and they came up like a lawn.


They germinate and grow easily then?
I can't even imagine how many seeds are on one of those things. It's pretty amazing.



beepro said:


> Anything that blooms from May til September is a good bee plant for me to
> get them through the summer dearth here. Though I don't like the 'hybrid' title that it
> may not grow true the next season if you collected the seeds from this year. How come don't
> get the open pollinated, non-hybrid to plant?


Moms started blooming in April and I doubt that it will make it until September. It's starting to look a little ragged and I imagine that by mid August it'll be mostly done blooming. Or not. It's been a big surprise so far. 
I don't know about the hybrid thing. Mom got it at the local nursery and if you read the tag then you know as much as me. I'll plant a bunch of seeds and find out if they grow true or not. I'll bet either way the bees love it.


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## odfrank

I read to germinate in June and July with last years seed and it is working great. I will take a pic tomorrow, if I remember.


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## odfrank

Here are my few week old Echium pininana seedlings. Very easy to germinate. This might be as profitable as my BeeBeeTree business.


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## odfrank

The mother plant:


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## BeeBop

Awesome! Look at all that Echium!

That'll be a lot of good bee fun when they grow up.


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## Charlie B

N


odfrank said:


> Here are my few week old Echium pininana seedlings. Very easy to germinate. This might be as profitable as my BeeBeeTree business.


Anything would be an improvement over those stupid BB trees!


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## odfrank

Charlie B said:


> Anything would be an improvement over those stupid BB trees!


Charlie - I grew enough to give you some for free so that you can kill them also with your abysmally poor gardening talent. These might even grow for a few months on that barren foggy, windy rooftop you think is a garden. But only until they get too tall and are blown over by the wind.


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## Charlie B

I think you have a weird obsession with plants.


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## beepro

Charlie, the BB trees are doing great here.
I don't water them for almost 2 weeks when I'm busy.
The leaves shrivel up a bit but still alive when I water them again.
They're very hardy on the ground not on the roof top. But if you want to
try the roof top method I would recommend Borage for the pollen and nectar. Both the blue and
white variety. Your bees will be all over them when they bloom. The Nyger is good too for the nectar source.
They are not too picky where you put them as long as they have the moisture to grow. A layer of mulch works
wonder for them on your roof top setting. 
You are so lucky to have such a nice bee friends over the years. Without him your beekeeping life would be
boring, indeed.

Now growing BB:


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## odfrank

>But if you want to try the roof top method I would recommend Borage

I think Charlie already came to grips with his abysmal gardening abilities. He was trying to sell me his planter boxes last year.


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## Charlie B

Thanks Beepro, I'll try Borage.


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## odfrank

Charlie....borage on a rooftop will require you to water it.....something which you proved with your BB trees that you are evidentially incapable of doing.


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## odfrank

I have some agave cactus that might be your speed.


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## Charlie B

odfrank said:


> I have some agave cactus that might be your speed.


Ok, I'll try that.


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## heaflaw

odfrank said:


> Here are my few week old Echium pininana seedlings. Very easy to germinate. This might be as profitable as my BeeBeeTree business.
> 
> ]


If you grow them for sale and if they'll make it in Piedmont NC, let me know.


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## beepro

Ohh, the agave cactus is even worse than the jewel plant.
Those are huge plants and will tip over alright unless you have a
very big planting tub. Stick with the Borage is better because they are
a bit drought tolerant. To water them just put a manual timer on a dripper
system available at your local hardware store. No need to wait for the watering and
your plants should thrive in the hot summer months.


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## Charlie B

beepro said:


> Ohh, the agave cactus is even worse than the jewel plant.
> Those are huge plants and will tip over alright unless you have a
> very big planting tub. Stick with the Borage is better because they are
> a bit drought tolerant.


Once again Ollie is trying to set me up for failure. Thanks for intervening Beepro. I'll try borage!


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## odfrank

Charlie B said:


> Once again Ollie is trying to set me up for failure. Thanks for intervening Beepro. I'll try borage!


No, I was hoping you would accidentally back into one of the one inch long stickers. I would laugh, and I would laugh!!!


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## Solarbeez

odfrank said:


> If it is 13' tall I wonder if it is Echium pininana instead? You will be disapointed with it as a windbreak. They die after blooming.
> 
> Hey Odfrank...Can you look at this video and tell me whether the echium that I've been calling a Tower of Jewels is really a echium pininana? The echium clip starts at 0:39 and goes to 1:09.
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neEHeFzeVXE
> 
> I know these will die after blooming, but they throw quite a few 'upstart' transplants which can be grown for the bees.
> 
> Thanks,
> Pat, Oregon Coast


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## odfrank

>Hey Odfrank...Can you look at this video

There are 60 species of Echium. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echium

We would need a botanist to figure our what kind we have. What I have been calling wildprettii only gets about 6' tall. The one I call pininana gets 13'. Yours has white flowers, It might be gigantea.

https://www.google.com/search?q=echium&rls={moz:distributionID}:{moz:locale}:{mozfficial}&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMI9anY4_2LxwIVlBSSCh0-6wz9&biw=1280&bih=564#imgrc=47cFEUrLiI8l4M%3A

I have enough left over seed to mail seeds to a few of you. Send a self addressed envelope to: 
1928 Lexington Ave., San Mateo, CA 94402-4029.


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## Solarbeez

odfrank said:


> I have enough left over seed to mail seeds to a few of you. Send a self addressed envelope to:
> 1928 Lexington Ave., San Mateo, CA 94402-4029.


I'll do that...do you want any seeds from this one?


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## Solarbeez

I'm sending you some seeds from my echium pininana tower to trade for some wild prettii seeds. I'm looking forward to getting some 'red' echium. 😀


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## BeeBop

Well, I guess Tower of Jewels is NOT deer proof. 
I had a little one in a pot that was about 8 inches tall. Now it's about 1 inch tall.


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## Solarbeez

BeeBop said:


> Well, I guess Tower of Jewels is NOT deer proof.
> I had a little one in a pot that was about 8 inches tall. Now it's about 1 inch tall.


Sheesh!!! They are eating everything now. About a week ago I noticed them pulling on some of my tomato vines. Do you need any more seeds? I got a bunch from odfrank.


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## Charlie B

Put your pots on your roof away from the deer. Mine died anyway.


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## BeeBop

Thanks for the seed offer Solarbeez! I've already got tons of seeds and a few tiny plants that have sprouted already The plant the deer ate was one my mom bought me at the nursery and I was kind of hoping it was off to a good enough start to bloom next year. Oh well.

Heh, sorry your plants died Charlie. Did you remember to water them up there on the roof? Try putting them at ground level and the local SF homeless will water them for you!


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## odfrank

Charlie B said:


> Put your pots on your roof away from the deer. Mine died anyway.


Is there any plant you can keep alive?


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## Charlie B

odfrank said:


> Is there any plant you can keep alive?


I do quite well with my medicine plants!


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## mcon672

The only one that matters. Your bees can go out and get what they need from your neighbors plants and wild forage for free.


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