Here are the beautiful flowers that we enjoyed on our visit to Stirling Point at Bluff on 13 Nov 2018. The tall spires are Pride of Madeira (Echium sp.) and the yellow flowers are yellow lupins. Photo 6 which includes a lot of flax also has South African flowers that we thought to be arctotis and the skeletons of old agapanthus heads from last season.
Bluff, Southland, New Zealand. Photo 5 taken by Nigel, all others taken by Liz
Text by Liz, Photos by Liz except for Photo 5 by Nigel; Exploring Colour (2018)
Exploring Colour 
Wow, impressive!
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It was the perfect day to see them too!
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Fascinating flowers!
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I’m glad you enjoyed seeing them.. thank you!
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Fabulous, Liz! Great colors and shapes and a bonus with those fabulous blues from the sky and water in the background.
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It was such a beautiful afternoon there, really perfect!
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I like Echiums very much, but it’s too frosty for them here, and Lupins are top of the pops too. I tried to grow some, but I think I overwatered them, so I didn’t manage to keep them for more than one season. I should try again.
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We inherited a few lupins in our last garden in the Catlins and they self-seeded a bit too easily so I’d be pulling them out! I do like the flowers though, so I didn’t take the parent plant out – it had lovely blue and white flowers.
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Echiums are very photogenic and you have captured them really well. Love the lupins too. I’m trying to grow some at the moment.
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Thank you very much! I wish you success with the lupins
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Thank you for giving me the name of the spikes – photographed some there as well! Beautiful shots!
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Thanks Leya! I was reviewing the info about the flowers last night – I didn’t have much time to look into it when I did the post (and I think most people here in NZ would refer to them as Pride of Madeira). But I don’t want to put you crook so I’ll give you these links. They appear to look more like “Pride of Tenerife” or Giant Bugloss http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/weeds-by-scientific-names/echium-pininana-giant-bugloss.html than like “Pride of Madeira” http://www.terrain.net.nz/friends-of-te-henui-group/weeds/pride-of-madeira-echium-candicans.html Whatever their true species they’re certainly Echiums!
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Thank you! I see the difference too! But still you are right about the species!
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Looking at one of my photos, it could be that both species are present in the same photo! To know for sure I’d have to go back and check (that’s not going to happen any time soon as we’re experiencing winter all over again with cold temperatures and days of rain – unbelievable!)
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I thougt too that you had both!
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Ah, thank you.. I do think you’re right Leya! I was talking about them with Nigel and he thought that some looked different to others when we there. At the time he just thought it was a variation rather than different species. With this info, it seems there really are different kinds of Echium growing together there! What a lot I’m learning 🙂
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Me too – thank you!
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Bet the bees will love all of those flowers – I’m sure there’ll be lots of happy buzzing! 🙂
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Nigel made a comment at the time about lots of bees. To be honest I don’t remember a thing.. must have been very focused on the photos I wanted! He’s taller too so likely saw them more readily.. those spires were so tall!
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The spires made a lovely photograph against the blue sky, so it was well worth the concentration! 🙂
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Thanks so much Ann! 🙂
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Your last photo is beautiful with the blue flower spikes against blue sea and sky. I hope these plants from Madeira are well behaved garden escapes rather than problem invasive plants.
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From what I’ve read so far they’re common as garden escapees but I haven’t found any discussion of them causing problems.
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So you’re free to enjoy their beauty for now!
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Lupins are really pretty eh? I’ve been reading a bit about invasive pest plants in NZ recently and, along with many others, I was slightly surprised to find them listed. I think we’ve got a good few pests in the garden here in Auckland…arum lily, tree privet, Japanese honeysuckle, agapanthus and wild ginger spotted thus far…tough to remove…🙂
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Lupins and California poppies are some of the prettiest pest plants 🙂
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It’s kind of odd in some ways how as man traversed the globe, we just wanted it to be like it was where we came from…comfort zones I guess. I can only imagine what things might’ve been like for those first settlers.
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Very tough! What about you.. have you planted anything because of association with where you’re from?
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Growing some herbs…but I have no idea where they’re from. Got a kowhai I’m growing from seed too…but nothing I’m conscious of as being a UK plant. 🙂
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Amazing shapes!
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