Puya bloom after 12 years in the ground

[Tracy]

I just noticed that my clump of an unknown species of Puya that has been growing for 12 years in the ground is finally pushing up an inflorescence, so flowers will be coming!  The first photo shows the paler Puya above a Puya alpestris clump that I had growing in the same area back in 2013.  I have since removed the Puya alpestris and what remains of that is in a couple of pots.  The unknown Puya is both lighter in color, forms much larger rosettes and each individual leaf is much thicker and longer than with Puya alpestris.  So with the flowers to open in the coming weeks, I will hopefully be able to nail down the species as well.  The inflorescence pushing up is visible in the second photo below.  It began as an extended protruberance of leaves, with the leaves diminishing in size (both length and width) as it approaches the current apex of the inflorescence.  Given my experience with the height of Puya alpestris and Puya mirabilis, I expect this one will continue growing up for a while before it actually opens and I see any flowers.  While this clump is large and has many individual "plants", I only see this one inflorescence thus far.  I know that some of the other Puya bloomed nearby at Quail Botanical, now San Diego Botanic Garden, here in Encintias during the Spring/ early summer.  My Puya mirabilis was later to bloom waiting until late July every year.

More photos to come as we get something more visually interesting to show.

[Hillizard]

Tracy: To me most Puyas look pretty much alike... until they bloom! Here's my P. venusta which I'm still waiting on to flower. I dread the day I decide to repot this viciously armed plant!

 

[Tracy]

2 hours ago, Hillizard said:

To me most Puyas look pretty much alike... until they bloom! Here's my P. venusta

The size of leaves and color of the leaves vary among the species.  I have Puya venusta still growing in my Carlsbad garden that was planted in the ground a decade ago which I have never seen bloom.  It's a little smaller species than the one I posted above.

[Josue Diaz]

Exciting! My mirabilis blooms every year but I have several that probably won't bloom until much later in life

[Hillizard]

4 hours ago, Tracy said:

The size of leaves and color of the leaves vary among the species.  I have Puya venusta still growing in my Carlsbad garden that was planted in the ground a decade ago which I have never seen bloom.  It's a little smaller species than the one I posted above.

Uh oh! Maybe I should name an heir in my will for my P. venusta if it might not flower in my lifetime!! 🤔

[Tracy]

On 8/30/2022 at 9:21 AM, Tracy said:

 

 

On 8/30/2022 at 11:22 AM, Hillizard said:

I dread the day I decide to repot this viciously armed plant!

If you stick it in the ground and wait a few years, yours will eventually form a nice colony like this one has done.  You can see why I was wondering if any of the other plants might bloom given all the pups this has put out over the years.

[Tracy]

Still waiting but it's getting closer to opening up the flowers.  It looks like the structure will be similar to Puya alpestris with those branches off the main stalk popping out and likely to have multiple flowers.  It is quite tall now too, so I'll be looking up at the flowers as they open.

[BigFrond]

😀Nice! That's a long wait.  Congrats!  It's any day or hours now.  😀

I removed my Puya berteroniana after a decade with no flowers.  All I got from it was a bigger mass of vicious armed leaves.  It is like nature's barb wired fence.  The colony became a rat nest, and it had to go.  Had it flowered, I may have spared it (probably not).

[Tracy]

6 hours ago, BigFrond said:

😀Nice! That's a long wait.  Congrats!  It's any day or hours now.  😀

I removed my Puya berteroniana after a decade with no flowers.  All I got from it was a bigger mass of vicious armed leaves.  It is like nature's barb wired fence.  The colony became a rat nest, and it had to go.  Had it flowered, I may have spared it (probably not).

My wife has wanted to extract it for a long time.  Fortunately mine has not turned into a rat's nest.  I'm actually quite surprised that anything smaller than a lizard would try to navigate the barbs on the leaves.

[Tracy]

Some flowers starting to open but not fully.  You can see a hint of the blue, definitely paler than Puya alpestris.  It looks like I may need to break out a ladder to get a good photo of the flowers, at least until the ones that are pointing down open.

[Tracy]

So what's the big deal... why is Tracy in such a tizzy over a flower????  Well you evaluate.  I had to drag out the ladder this morning to get a closer look, you can see the top of the 6' ladder off to the side of the inflorescence.  I was hoping to nail down the species with the flower, but this pale blue was throwing me.  If it was Puya berteroniana I was expecting a darker blue than my Puya alpestris was but this is clearly lighter. 

I did a little online search for the lighter color flower and see some variation with Puya berteroniana, then I read the article here:  http://www.llifle.com/Encyclopedia/BROMELIADS/Family/Bromeliaceae/33609/Puya_x_berteroniana

Taxonomy: There is a lot of confusion about the classification of this species. A re-evaluation of the widely applied concept of P. berteroniana led to the conclusion that the type of P. berteroniana is of hybrid origin and is maintained as Puya x berteroniana (Georg Zizka et al. 2013). The name P. berteroniana has been widely misapplied to what in fact is the northern, larger form of the blue flowering Puya alpestris, which is regarded as a new subspecies, Puya alpestris subsp. zoellneri, a member of subgenus Puya. Puya x berteroniana is a very rare and almost unknown hybrid.

So perhaps I have Puya alpestris subsp. zoellneri?  That would explain the label when I purchased it listing it as just Puya alpestris and not Puya x berteroniana.  Anyone want to throw their hat in the ring with some knowledge or speculation?

[Tracy]

Ahhh and why did I get out the ladder?  See below:

[Manalto]

What's the big deal? It's spectacular! The color of the blooms is ethereal. Wonderful photos. Thanks for posting.

[Tracy]

Sunday night 9/11, the top portion of the stalk was starting to lean at sundown (1st photo).  It continued opening up (second photo), but th lean was a bit more pronounced on the tip on 9/12 and shortly after the sunset, the weight became excessive and the entire flower stem fell over.  I got out an old Brute garbage can to prop it up so it isn't laying on the ground.  The Brute also provides good scale on the size of both the plant and it's flowers.  One more shot of the flowers closer up.

Although I removed the in ground colony of my regular form of Puya alpestris a few years back, I've kept some in pots.  Two potted examples of the regular Puya alpestris to compare in both color and size to this Puya alpestris ssp zoellnerii

[Tracy]

Too bad the flower stalk fell over like it did.  You can see how the flowers on the stalks really fill out over time.  The old flowers twist into what you see at the bases, below the opened flowers.  Maybe I will get another bloom on this plant in another 12 years.  Meanwhile  ......