All For Gardening
The front garden of a property on a housing estate has a very tall over 6m (22ft) tall agave americana plant growing between rafters of a wooded structure that was a makeshift greenhouse but now the roof has been removed to allow the spike to grow up. Two cars are parked on the driveway, one black, one white, with a white BBC van parked outside the house.
In Gardening

Gardener’s delight after giant rare plant flowers in Hartford

Guy Barter, the Royal Horticultural Society’s chief horticulturist, said the plant was tender and it was unusual to find it growing outside.

“It is monocarpic flowering then dying, but young offsets (‘pups’) arise around its base so the plant sort of lives on, even though the central rosette perishes.

“It builds up resources over a number of years (not usually a century) and then flowers,” he said.

Mr Barter added that opportunities for it to achieve flowering size in Britain were limited to frost free situations and greenhouses.

“Its lofty flower spike is tricky to accommodate in most greenhouses – panes in the roof may have to be removed.

“Flower spikes can reach 8m, so a 22-footer (over 6m) is larger than usual but not unprecedented. Under climate change outdoor agave are expected to be more common,” he said.

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