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Puya coerulea, my favorite plant in the garden; this week…

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Last weekend Andrew helped me perform a bit of a container shuffle. Plants in the shade pavilion greenhouse, which are only hardy to the mid 20’s, went into the basement - just in case. They would’ve probably been fine, as long as the heater could keep up, but since there were others that really needed to come in (those that are zone 8 hardy in the ground, but not necessarily in a container) I figured it was a good trade off. After we finished we took a little tour around the garden and paid our respects (said our goodbyes?) to plants I fear may not make it through the week. Of course I will try to protect them, but experience says, depending on just how cold we get, there are going to be a few losses. One of the plants I was sure to be grateful for was this Puya coerulea

He’s already been a survivor, outlasting his siblings who died their first winter in the ground, 2010. Coincidentally that’s the year being referenced as the last time we saw temperatures comparable to what’s ahead, unless they go and get really ugly and bring up 2009. Photo taken shortly after planting in 2010…

I bought the triplets at Dancing Oaks Nursery; they were trying to get rid of them and had marked the plants down to just $3.50 each! How could I not grab all three?

Here are the triplets later that summer…

And the surviving plant in April of 2011…

September 2011, having come a long way since early spring!

February 2012…

And now things are starting to look a little more familiar, the poor guy isn’t so lonely out there anymore. Photo taken May of 2012…

Here are the stats on Puya coerulea:
  • in the Bromeliad family, from Chile
  • likes full sun and well drained soil
  • hardy to 20-25F
  • width eventually to 3ft (I read it does tend to spread and form multi-headed plants in nature)
  • height with bloom up to 6ft

It’s been wonderful having you around Mr. Puya, I hope you are able to stay awhile longer. I really like having you here...

What plant has caught your eye this week? If you blog about it please leave a link in the comments so we can all read about it!

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

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