Beginner Gardening: Echium Wildpretii, 1 by ardent

ardent wrote:
Many of you will have grown (or seen in the wild) ECHIUM WILDPRETII which grows as a single large rosette in year 1. It usually flowers in year 2, sending up a 4 foot flower spike of pink flowers, a striking plant - see photo.
However, it is monocarpic and will flower in year 3 (and then die) if bad weather stops it flowering in year 2.

One of mine (grown from seed) has not flowered in year 2 due to a bad winter, but has made SEVEN large sideshoots and presumably I will have 8 flower stems next summer, all from one plant!
Dimensions are :- Main stem 44" high, sideshoots 30" to 36" high, whole plant 66" (yes, 66 inches) wide. One sideshoot is 1.25" thick.

This is very unusual and I would ask if anyone has heard of or seen such a thing before. I live in West Wales (UK) which usually has warm winters which enable me to grow such plants, but last winter was very cold with frosts.