{"id":48311,"date":"2026-05-25T14:40:32","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T14:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/48311\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T14:40:32","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T14:40:32","slug":"cornwall-pensioner-grows-britains-biggest-echium-as-tall-as-a-giraffe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/48311\/","title":{"rendered":"Cornwall pensioner grows ‘Britain’s biggest echium’ as tall as a giraffe"},"content":{"rendered":"

A pensioner in Cornwall<\/a> has grown what is thought to be Britain’s biggest ever echium plant.<\/p>\n

John Richards, 80, started planting the species 20 years ago after falling in love with them while holidaying in Madeira, Portugal, and the Canary Islands.<\/p>\n

Now the retired construction worker has managed to grow what is believed to be Britain’s tallest echium, reaching an incredible 18ft 9in (5.72m) – roughly the same height as an adult giraffe.<\/p>\n

The echium is now taller than Mr Richards’s house (Image: William Dax \/ SWNS)<\/p>\n

Echiums are striking flowering plants known for their towering spires covered in thousands of tiny blue and purple blooms.<\/p>\n

Mr Richards, from Hayle, said Cornwall’s weather had helped the echium grow to its massive size.<\/p>\n

The retired construction worker said he named the plant ‘Eric’ after a schoolboy he remembered for being unusually tall.<\/p>\n

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He said: “I have been growing these echiums for over 20 years. When the flowers fall seeds fall after that, and they self seed and the wind blows them all over the garden.<\/p>\n

“The tallest one I have got is Eric. I call it Eric because a boy in school years ago was called Eric and he was very tall, so I called him after that.<\/p>\n

“I saw them when I went on holidays years ago to Madeira and the Canary Islands and they had loads of them down there and I liked them.<\/p>\n

“When I came back I bought one from somewhere – it might have been a boot sale, it might have been a shop or a garden centre – I can’t remember now but I have liked them ever since and grown them ever since.”<\/p>\n

Mr Richards, 80, started planting echiums over 20 years ago after falling in love with the towering plants while holidaying in Madeira, Portugal, and the Canary Islands. (Image: William Dax \/ SWNS)<\/p>\n

He added: “Eric is the biggest I have ever had. I had one a few years ago in-between the palm trees that was 17ft10.<\/p>\n

“As far I know it is [the biggest in the UK], unless someone has got one taller – and if they have, let me know.”<\/p>\n

Mr Richards said that currently he has got 18 echiums in his garden, but some years he has had half a dozen and other times he has had 20.<\/p>\n

He said he doesn’t do much to keep them growing and only uses a bit of fertiliser, adding that having them in Cornwall helps with their growth.<\/p>\n

He explained: “I feed them sometimes, had a bit of fertiliser and got well drained soil, full sun position and they like that. They like being frost free as well. There’s not much frost in this part of Cornwall.<\/p>\n

“The location is good for it and you are facing south as well so there’s sun all day.”<\/p>\n

The plants are known for being covered in thousands of tiny blue and purple blooms (Image: William Dax \/ SWNS)<\/p>\n

The towering echium is also proving a major attraction for wildlife, with its dense spikes of nectar-rich flowers drawing in bees and other pollinators.<\/p>\n

Mr Richards said: “They love bees and the bees love them – there’s a real buzz all day long especially when the sun is shining.”<\/p>\n

He believes that Eric might grow an inch or two more.<\/p>\n

He said: “It seems to have slowed down the last couple of weeks, but he might make another couple of inches.<\/p>\n

“I will have to keep an eye on it in the next few days.”<\/p>\n

Before this the reported tallest echium in Britain was in July 2023, when a specimen measuring around 18ft 4in (approximately 5.59m) was grown by Pam and Noel Betowski in Sancreed, Cornwall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pensioner in Cornwall has grown what is thought to be Britain’s biggest ever echium plant. John Richards,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[13,24238,24242,2527,24237,24241,24236,4696,24240,24239],"class_list":["post-48311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-britain","tag-britain","tag-canary-islands","tag-construction-worker","tag-cornwall","tag-john-richards","tag-madeira","tag-mr-richards","tag-portugal","tag-swns","tag-william-dax"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116635738037038026","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}