Viper’s Bugloss Seeds (Echium vulgare)

Viper’s Bugloss (Echium vulgare) is a native biennial of dry grassland, coastal shingle, dunes and heathland, growing 25 to 75cm tall. It forms a rosette of rough, bristly leaves in its first year and in its second sends up speckled, hairy stems packed with flowers that open pink and turn a strong azure blue, each with long red stamens. It flowers from June to September.

Few British wildflowers are as good for bees. The flowers refill with nectar quickly and are worked continuously by bumblebees, honeybees, solitary bees and butterflies through the summer, and moths visit at dusk. As a biennial it dies after seeding but self-seeds well on open ground, so it renews itself where there is bare soil and full sun. It brings strong colour and height to thin, dry ground.

It needs well-drained, low-fertility soil in full sun and thrives on chalk, sand, gravel and shingle where competition is light. It suits a chalk bank, a sunny gravel area, a coastal garden, a brownfield or new-build site with poor subsoil, or a dry sunny meadow edge. Avoid heavy, wet or fertile ground, and note that the bristly leaves can irritate skin.

Sow in autumn or spring onto bare or scarified ground, surface-sown and firmed in. Rosettes form in the first year and flower spikes follow in the second. Leave plants to shed seed in late summer before cutting, and keep some open ground each year so seedlings can establish. Combine with our dry and chalk mixes or single species that share the same free-draining, sunny conditions.