I didn't say that Puya were 'nice'; I got torn to shreds when I fell into a big one. Another small species that blooms in a few years is P. mirabilis. Paul On Sun, Dec 25, 2016 at 12:54 PM, Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net> wrote: > Nice to see PBS posts arriving again; the list host cut me off for a > couple of weeks. > > I've grown a couple of Puya species (and flowered one of them, as I recall > in about 8 years) and have admired a number of others in South America. I > don't grow them any more because (1) they are not hardy outdoors here in > Portland, Oregon; (2) if grown in a container, it would eventually have to > be far larger than I could move (in particular, P. raimondii gets > gigantic); and (3) they have vicious hooked barbs on the leaf margins and > you don't want to get too close to them. When I moved my potted ones > outdoors for the summer, I had to wrap a tarp around the plant to avoid the > fishhooks. > > The UC Berkeley Botanical Garden suffers frost rarely, and then it usually > isn't severe (barring what happened in 1990/1991, when plants all over the > Pacific Coast froze to death). More important, you can't translate > elevations in the Andes directly to North American USDA "hardiness zones." > At more temperate latitudes, the plants are likely to spend their winters > snug under the snow, and as you get nearer the Equator, temperatures even > at what seems (especially to a resident of the Atlantic coast) as very high > elevation are relatively moderate, perhaps freezing at night and thawing in > the daytime. > > So my opinion is, don't try them outdoors in Boston! And if you want one > in your greenhouse, look for a smaller species, such as P. venusta (which > has beautiful glaucous foliage and purple flowers). In my experience the > seeds germinate readily. > > Jane McGary > > Portland, Oregon, USA > > > > On 12/25/2016 8:19 AM, Paul LICHT wrote: > >> Chad >> The UC Botancal Garden in Berkeley has a large collection of Puya species, >> alll growing outside for several decades. They bloom regularly. The most >> unusual and largest is Puya raimondii from Peru/Bolivia. Said to bloom >> only >> after 75-100 yrs in nature, several years ago, we had a bloom in a 26 yr >> old (planted as seed in the Garden). Many Puya come from mountainous >> areas. >> The P. raimondii typically occurs from 10-14,000 ft in the Andes and might >> well live n Mass. >> >> Paul >> >> On Sun, Dec 25, 2016 at 4:49 AM, Jane Sargent <jane@deskhenge.com> wrote: >> >> You grow puya! I saw some in Venezuela once. Rumor has it that they have a >>> tendency to autocombust, and that some kinds take 150 years to flower. >>> Some >>> have turquoise flowers. Does anybody know what zones they will live in? >>> I´d >>> love to grow them in Massachusetts for the next 150 years or so. >>> Jane Sargent >>> _______________________________________________ >>> pbs mailing list >>> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >>> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >>> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> pbs mailing list >> pbs@lists.ibiblio.org >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php >> http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >> > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/