Plant name: Echium pininana
Suggested by: Mike Burgess of Secret Seeds
Virtues: Dramatic, tall, exotic plant. Much loved by bees and butterflies. Where space is limited, this plant just grows straight up.
Flower: Huge spires of blue flowers.
Foliage: Large bristly rosette of long exotic-looking leaves.
Habit: Trunk sometimes dips and goes back up again, to around 3 or 4 yards tall.
Companions: Mediterranean-style plants.