I got some seeds in a science -related “box subscription” for my kids a few years ago and 2 out of the 4 seedlings flowered this year, doing so for a few months on end. Here are some photos, though I’m afraid I took fewer than I realized, none during peak flowering apparently:
I planted all four in the ground this spring, expecting them all to flower this year. The two that didn’t flower seem to have survived our recent cold snap (many nights below freezing, two nights around 25°F), which is surprising to me. Here they are:
These seeds must have an interesting dormancy requirement. Nothing sprouted last year around where that main plant was in 2022, but this spring a bunch of them came up. I potted a few of them up and left a couple the ground in case it’s a mild enough winter for them.
Here are the in-ground ones (smaller one on the right, almost swallowed by the bigger one):
Interestingly, among the seedlings there are two very different phenotypes, one is like the first seedlings were, with wide leaves, and the other has very narrow leaves. I wonder if maybe it hybridized with some other Echium someone is growing nearby?
