Thursday 20 January 2022

So what happened

You may remember I posted about a plant in our garden last year  ...

Agave americana

Blogpost dated 26th July 2021

and with an update 5th August 2021.



Here are a couple of aerial photos taken by our daughter using her drone, looking down onto the very Top of the plant



We enjoyed seeing this grow and get taller and taller, reaching around 25ft.  Of course, we always knew it was doing this growing/flowering as a final farewell - they grow - they flower - they die off.

It was inevitable with storms that came in during November 2021, that we would lose the plant.  And sure enough we got up one morning to find it was Down!   Our surprise was that it hadn't snapped off, but instead, the whole plant had toppled over (thankfully still within our garden).  




We got on and started clearing it up - knowing it would take several trips to the recycling centre to clear away completely

and No, it hadn't hit husband round the head ⬋








So bit, by bit, husband cut the plant
(I photographed...and helped by putting pieces of plant into various bins)

Click the image below for a 1min. video of husband getting to grips with this plant...and watch out for his surprise when he finally cuts through it!



                                         
The small plants you can see in the middle/lower part of the above image, are the baby ones, so they have been potted up.


It was a lovely plant - albeit spikey - and had taken years to grow, but was fun to see it grow the flower part.  Don't worry, even though we saved some of the baby ones, we do have a couple of others in our garden.

At Christmas, we got a nice surprise gift from our neighbours,
who had taken a photograph of the plant from their angle during a sunset.












6 comments:

Eileen H said...

That's a really cool photo taken from the drone and I don't know why I was surprised just how thick that stem was. What a wonderful gift of the photo from your neighbours, it's beautiful.

ann @ studiohyde said...

Hi Eileen.....We were surprised at the thickness of that stem too. When it started growing, we had No Idea what would happen. In fact, (and actually neighbours the 'other side of us' also thought this), that as it grew, it looked remarkably like an Asparagus....it did have a few days/weeks of looking like something 'other than' an asparagus!, almost embarrassing (you'll have to imagine yourselves on this) LOL....However, after the semi-embarrassing asparagus phase, it then took on the look of a large broccoli....We really did wonder where this plant was headed.

robin cox walsh said...

Awwww....too bad. But your neighbors captured the perfect picture for posterity! :)

ann @ studiohyde said...

Thanks Robin….Yes, it was a shame the plant came down, but it was a thrill to have finally seen it flower like that. The neighbours really surprised us, and as you say, something special to keep for the future.

Shammickite said...

I hope some of the babies thrive! How long had the plant been growing in your garden? So interesting to see it from up above, bird's eye view.

ann @ studiohyde said...

Hi Shammickite, The plant was growing for about 14 years or so, not exactly sure of the actual year we got it, - was small when we bought it from Bicton Gardens. So pleased it finally flowered. Hope you are doing okay, I still can’t add a comment on other peoples blogs, keep trying to work out a way around it. All the best to you, and I see one of your grand children is almost 14…heck they grow up so quick!