I'm not a great gardener, but I know what these are. They are Tree Echiums which are just stunning. The huge flower spikes have been known to grow as high as 15 feet tall with thousands of blue/purple flowers and the bees just love them.
They were originally from The Canary Islands and brought back to England by the great Victorian plant hunters. Sadly they didn't fair very well here in England as our winters are a bit harsh for them, but we are fortunate enough to have lots of them on Cornwall's balmy sub tropical southern coast.
Great composition here with your lighthouse in the distance leading your eye through. Gawd sounds like I know what I'm talking about!! As a plantswoman I envy you these great things - its that micro climate of yours!
@annied What a lot of people don't realise is that here in Cornwall we are lucky enough to have the Gulf Stream washing up on our south coast which means we have a sort of sub tropical micro climate. We seldom have a frost in the winter, so many tropical plants do quite well for us. Palm trees are a particular favourite round here. We always say that we only keep an ice scraper in the car to get the seagull poo off the wind screen. have only ever bought one can of de-icer in the 15 years we have lived here. The old one wasn't empty.... it had actually gone rusty. :)
and as a side note I have never heard anyone refer to anywhere in England as balmy hahaha - thanks for the smile