PlantFiles: Puya
Puya alpestris

Although this is an extremely vicious plant and not recommended for planting close to paths or where anyone is likely to brush past, the flowers are incredible. Nearly 3" long, very heavily waxy and the most unbelievable shade of dark turquoise, they force you to stop and admire them. I rather like the way that the tips of the branching flower spikes are barren and provide perches for pollinating birds in search of nectar within the flowers.

In the UK, a small 8" high, well rooted offset takes about 6 years to reach flowering size. It appears reasonably hardy, but does resent heavy winter rainfall and the leaves can develop pale spotting by the end of winter. The stout flower spikes reach to nearly 5 feet and take about 7 weeks from first appearance to first flowers opening. Flowering in the UK can take place at any time from end of May onwards, although I have know one plant to be in full flower by mid April. My own is just flowering for the first time and although the main rosette will die, plenty of large offsets that have been produced over the past 18 months indicate that from now on, it should flower every year.

This makes a good silver accent to any warm garden- is OK for xeriscape as well as moister So Cal gardens. But it is very sharp and should only be trimmed/pruned with gloves on (the sharp spines along the curved leaf edges face toward the center of the plant, and once you get hooked, you can only go further to the center to get unhooked, and often get hooked again even closer- watch out!). It can form huge, impenetrable thickets. A Chilean native. Like many Puyas, this plant has beautiful, large exotic looking flowers that just don't seem to go along with the rest of the plant. THis species has upright, compound flowers that look almost like exotic pineapples on stems, with the most unreal color of turquoise-green flowers in them. These unfortunately occur only briefly in April.