"Chris Hogg" wrote
Dave Hill wrote:

A horticultural phenomenon is taking place at a Cornish garden as a
plant that only flowers once every 15 to 20 years has started to grow.
The Furcraea longaeva which can grow in excess of 40ft tall - a world
record - has started a new lifecycle at Trebah Garden near Falmouth,
Cornwall. This will be a once in a lifetime opportunity for some
people to see the flowering of a plant which has an unusually long
lifecycle.


The exotic plant, which originates from Central Mexico, is thought to
have sprouted earlier than usual as a result of an extremely cold
winter. Trebah's head gardener, Darren Dickey said: "What makes them
so unusual at Trebah is the fact that there are so many of them
grouped in one distinct area.

"We think that the flowers have been spurred on by the cold winter we
experienced. They don't like the cold and their instinct is to fight
for survival. The really are out of this world."

The plants have started flowering on the Rockery, above the Lawn Path
of the Cornish garden. They start off as a soft, beautiful blue-green
rosette that eventually form a trunk of around 6ft. The umbrella type
plant then spikes into a huge tower of flowers, with pendulous
branches and white petals cloaked in white velveteen.

Furcreas are not uncommon in west Cornwall gardens. I've even seen
them as roadside plantings, presumably put there by the local council
(also Beschornerias, someone somewhere's quite adventurous!). Their
behaviour, that of flowering once in a lifetime of 20 years or so, is
very similar to that of Agave americana (aka Century plant), to which
they are related. But IMO when they do flower, they are very much more
attractive than the agave. For some reason they remind me of white
weddings. There's a good picture of 40ft. high Furcreas in flower on
Tresco, in Arnold-Forster's book, 'Shrubs for the Milder Counties'
(opposite p. 320 in the 1st. edition), recently reprinted I believe,
but I've never seen them that big on the mainland. As the central
rosette dies, it produces offsets that grow into new plants, but the
dead centre is rather unsightly and is best hauled out, no trivial
undertaking I gather. AIUI they will tolerate a little frost, say to
-5C, but they are very susceptible to winter wet, so best grown in
areas of low rainfall and planted in very free draining soil.

All I can add is that Ray Hubbard gave me two tiny Furcrea bedinghousii
which he broke off from a flower spike and I grew them up in our greenhouse.
When big enough I planted one in a large pot and put it outside where it has
been ever since (quite a few years) I move it up against the house wall in
winter so it stays dryer and warmer. The other plant I kept in the
greenhouse and planted it out in a dry sunny spot in the garden last summer,
it didn't last the winter.

--
Regards
Bob Hobden
just W. of London