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Anchusa azurea Mill. (syn. Anchusa italica Retz.) — Italian Bugloss, or Large Bugloss. A robust and generous perennial from the Boraginaceae family, native to the Mediterranean basin, southern Europe, and western Asia, naturalized in many temperate regions. In France, it is present in a subspontaneous state in wastelands, embankments, vineyards, and roadsides of southern and sub-Mediterranean regions, on calcareous, dry, and well-drained soils.
It is a tall plant, reaching 90 to 150 centimeters in height depending on growing conditions, developing upright, robust stems, very branched in their upper part, entirely covered with stiff and prickly hairs characteristic of Boraginaceae. The leaves, large, lanceolate, rough, and hispid, are sessile on the stems, with basal ones reaching 30 to 40 centimeters in length. The whole plant has a coarse and hairy texture that strikingly contrasts with the extreme refinement of its flowering.
For it is indeed its flowering that makes all the fame of Anchusa azurea : flowers of an azure to gentian blue of exceptional intensity and purity, among the truest and most saturated blues in the plant kingdom. Each flower is small, in a flared tube with five lobes, adorned in its center with a ring of white scales forming a contrasting eye, and borne in scorpioid cymes — these inflorescences coiled like a crosier so typical of the family — which gradually unfurl as the flowering progresses, from May to July. The floral mass produced on a well-established clump is considerable, creating a blue cloud effect of great visual impact in the garden.
Several quality cultivars have been selected for the intensity of their color and their more compact habit than the type species. 'Loddon Royalist' is perhaps the most famous, with its intense royal blue flowers and relatively controlled habit at 90 centimeters; 'Dropmore' offers a lighter sky blue on stems reaching 1.2 meters; 'Little John' is a dwarf and compact form at 45 centimeters, more suited to small gardens.
In cultivation, it requires well-drained soil, light to moderately rich, in full sun exposure. It tolerates drought well once established and dislikes heavy and wet soils in winter, which cause collar rot. Its lifespan is often relatively short in humid conditions, behaving more like a biennial or short-lived perennial than a strictly perennial plant; however, it readily reseeds itself. A severe pruning after the first flowering can stimulate a second bloom in late summer. It is easily propagated by root cuttings taken in autumn or winter, a method that allows faithful preservation of selected cultivars and renewal of aging clumps.
In terms of associations, its height and bright blue make it an ideal partner for old roses, Geranium perennials, Salvia and silver grasses, in cottage-style beds or Mediterranean gardens. It blooms with irises and peonies, forming spring associations of great chromatic richness.