These are rather curious beasties. They are a nice bluish grey in colour and slowly form a fleshy rosette of thick drooping sword leaves until they hit about 2 feet then they shoot out a huge 8 foot flower which is either pink or red, followed by loads of suckering babies, then the main plant dies off and the suckers start the process all over again. Left to their own devices you will eventually have a huge colony of them with flowers shooting out in all directions... very nice to behold!They really don’t care about the cold (mine have been in -10 unprotected), they don’t care about wet weather in Winter and their only enemy is slugs and snails. I think these pests only attack when they have nothing else to eat in the garden. They drill holes through the chunky leaves which can make them look very tatty. The slugs also really like the flowers and will eat all of the petals if given a chance before they bloom.
I love this plant. It is like a Yucca or Agave, but faster growing and no spines to stab you in the leg. It is a real pity that the main plant dies off after flowering as they are pretty fast growing and could (if they didn’t die off) grow to a formidable size in a relatively short space of time. Hmmm, i wonder if severing the flower before it blooms would preserve the plant? Most garden centres sell this plant, though rather highly priced, so go dig one out !!!
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