On 19/7/07 04:38, in article
, "Dave Poole"
wrote:

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.

The spikes are fully developed and the flowers are starting to open. These
two sunny days should help that a lot. In fact, you've reminded me that I
must go and photograph it. We'd love you to confirm our ID of it because,
naturally, Ray can't remember where he got it from. ;-) It's on the side
of the path that runs behind the little conservatory greenhouse, towards
Matthew's cottage.

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!

Lethal is right. Don't they snare animals which then die and fertilise the
ground for them?! Our P. venusta is nothing like as showy as P.alpestris -
the colours are much 'quieter' and it isn't as tall. I'm thinking we
should try both those and perhaps some Leucodendrons (if they come from the
saved seed from Tresco) in one of the car park borders. It gets very windy
there but it could be the wet that will be the problem. We want to try to
push the boundaries a bit and see what of those types things will survive
with us if we can find time to make a raised bed for them, perhaps.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
(remove weeds from address)
'We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our
children.'