Our great friends, Pat and Bob who live over in Point Richmond (East Bay), sent us some cool pics of their Mr. Happy. What is a Mr Happy? It’s am enormous Echium hybrid that shoot put a crazy high tower of blooms.
Mr Happy - Echium hybrid
Nice composition too complete with Artichoke in the front, and Gold Gate Bridge in the distance.. Sounds like this one will bloom every year too. 
You can see a Price of Madeira (Echium candicans) in the background to the right, looks like both Echiums do well on a slope.
Mr Happy - Echium hybrid
– Far Out Flora
May 18, 2010 at 9:31 am
My favorite plant ever, and now my fave pics of it… I want a Mr. Happy at the Rancho!
May 19, 2010 at 1:09 pm
CRAZY ! I d’ont know this in France !
May 26, 2010 at 5:31 am
It’s an echium pininana by the looks of it. Beautiful plants
They die after flowering, but save the seeds and grow more. Or perhaps Mother Nature will spread the seeds for you and you’ll find them coming up everywhere!
August 10, 2011 at 6:10 am
We just came back home from a holliday in Bretagne / France and this beautifull flower is growing there in almost every garden !! We bought one in a garden center in Morlay and we hope that it will grow and flower it in our garden (Belgium). When you are in Bretagne, you can also visit the exotic garden in Rostoff. There are dozens of this plant in this garden and you can buy it there too.
August 10, 2011 at 6:18 am
still forgot something : this is the site of the exotic garden in Roscoff : http://www.jardinexotiqueroscoff.com/genre/143/1/1/echium/echium-hybride-de-roscoff.html
You’ll find lots of pictures and information of this marvellous plant on this site.
February 29, 2012 at 5:33 pm
Can we plant ecium hybrid (mr Happy) in a pot and can we grow this in Redding,ca which is in zone 9? Plus what other plants would you recommend in this area?
March 2, 2012 at 2:50 pm
It’s not recommended to plant Echium ‘Mr. Happy’ in a pot, but we got away with planting Echium wildpretii (another big one) in a large container. It even bloomed for us last Spring. Hardy to zone 9 it should be okay in Redding. As coastal California dwellers originally from Wisconsin, we’re not as familiar with plants that do well inland. Hope this helps a little