Sacha wrote:
Ours is flowering outside in the bed above the tea room door. It's a fairly
steeply sloping bed so we hope the wet weather won't affect the plant but
right now it has two flower spikes on it and looks very happy, if a little
weird and other-worldly.

Oh well done! The flowering of Puyas is always an 'event' even in
much warmer climates where they do so with greater regularity. I can't
remember ever having seen the plant, although I must have passed it
countless times. How far advanced are the flower spikes? I must pop
over and see. It's a very fine species with 4 foot high, dense,
branched spikes of pink bracted, intense blue flowers. That 'other-
worldly' description is very apt for many species of Puya. When they
flower they are so very different to any other plant.

I've had P. alpestris flower a couple of times here and every time it
performs, I spent hours looking at their extraordinary form. The only
drawback with most Puyas is that their leaves are absolutely lethal
and designed to rip into your skin. I got 'hammered' by mine 10 days
ago and it looks as though I'll get a nice scar on my forearm as a
reminder. I'd have more if I had more space, but it's already a bit
of an obstacle course getting around here and I can't risk having too
many plants that bite!