Playing Favorites: Pride of Madeira
This bit of garden nostalgia is also a cautionary tale.
If you had asked me while I was gardening in California (all those years ago) what my favorite garden plant was, I would have without hesitation said Euphorbia wolfenii, which was the backbone of my garden, my absolute go-to plant. But as I’ve run across beautiful pics these past few days of Pride of Madeira blooming away in gardens from Menorca to Portugal (along with Euphorbias everywhere I turn), I’ve realized it might be the one I miss the most. And am most happy to have gotten to grow, in that lovely climate.
This stately echium was a specific request from my husband when we started that garden, and I was happy to oblige. I gave a little 2' nursery plant the full run of a sunny corner, and within a season (as I recall) it had grown into an 8' mound and put on the most magnificent show imaginable. In my mind, to this day, it is inseparable from Northern California, where it dotted the rocky coastlines, and I think I just assumed it was native! But when I went to look it up for this post, I found that in California it is (since then?) considered invasive, and same goes for New Zealand and Australia. Which does temper my joyful memory of it — I certainly never meant to contribute to that. But this is exactly how it happens: An imported plant is popular in a place, widely available in nurseries (it apparently even received the Royal Horticultural Society’s merit award in 2002), gets snatched up by uncautious gardeners (like me, then) and next thing you know it has escaped gardens and is creating problems in the wild.
That does make me feel a bit better, though, that after it put on that show, it petered out and I had to replace it.
Anyway, it lives in my memory as one of the greatest plants I’ve ever had the pleasure to grow. I also learned that, at one point at least, it was ironically considered threatened on Madeira. So if you happen to be gardening there, by all means plant it! Elsewhere, look into whether it’s problematic where you are, or just admire it from afar.
PLANT DETAILS:
• Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans/fastuousum), native to the island of Madeira and apparently only Madeira
• Member of the borage/forget-me-not family, Boraginaceae
• Striking grey-green foliage, mounding habit
• Huge spires of blue-purple blooms
• Grows quickly in suitable climate, to 8'-10' high and wide
• Excellent focal point but needs its space
