Oh my gosh.....I went out to water on the front porch and these turquoise light-bulbs were shining! A little hard to catch the whole effect in a picture, but they just glow like turquoise jewels. A truly unbelievable color. Here they are in the shade of a photographic umbrella:
And trying to catch the light bulb effect:
.
Those are real nice, thanks for sharing them!
Ingrid
Oh my gosh, that is a crazy color! Which Puya is it?
Oh Candy, I'm just gonna CRY! I've wanted a Puya like that ever since I first saw one in a book about 4 years ago! It's so pretty! *sigh* Lucky you and lucky it to have someone adopt it who obviously appreciates it like it deserves :-)
-Julie
I've heard of this plant but never seen the actually flower blooming. Very striking!
:) Donna
Mary this is the big Puya I got at the UC Berkeley sale a couple of weeks ago:
Puya alpestris
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/505163/
Tonight there are 3 flowers open....and so many to go. I just love it!
This message was edited Sep 26, 2005 4:20 PM
This is Puya alpestris in southern California (few months ago)
These are Puya chilensis... also an unbelievable color
This is the 'true' Puya courulea... comes in several slight varieties, but always a branching flower with red, dark blue-to black and sometimes fuzzy, sometimes not. The flower Happenstance is showing above is P alpestris or beteranoa (spelling?)
oops. mispelled coerulea... anyway, here is Puya venusta... all these Puyas look alike except for minor differences in size or color of leaf... but the flowers sure do look different.
Here is a slightly different color of Puya venusta flower
This is Puya ultima
Here's one last picture of Puya coerula taken just a few weeks ago (one of the later blooms of Puyas in southern California).
When the flowers opened this morning I did take a look at your images in the PlantFiles Palmbob......then I double checked the information I got from the UC Berkeley botanical garden that came with the plant. Then I checked their own image of the P.coerulea http://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/plantbar/plantbar7.htm which definitely looks more like your images than the "turquoise" of my flowers.
On the other hand the RHS ID's the turquoise flowers as P. coerulea in the 2/2005 Journal:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/Learning/publications/pubs/garden0205/newsplantforum.asp
You certainly know more about these plants than I do and have obviously seen more of them in the flesh. Perhaps I can get Marilyn (pekasky) to review some of these images of my plant with the folks at the Botanical Garden regarding the history of my plant. I appreciate your input.
EDIT: some of the comments and discussions regarding the Puya with the "turquoise" flowers may not make much sense. The ID in most places has been corrected to Puya alpestris.
This message was edited Sep 26, 2005 4:25 PM
Hmmmmm. Will have to talk to the Huntington about this one...
So, I did a little reading...they're members of the bromeliad family?
Oh no, and that they're monocarpic?? :( I hope you guys got a lot of off sets!
This message was edited May 12, 2005 8:37 AM
Palmbob, I'm...I'm...I'm ...I'm....just speechless! Wow! I'm absolutely enamoured with your last pic! (shaking my head in wonder at how lovely it is!)....Wow! again!
-Julie
I think PUyas are an exception to the monocarpic rules with Bromeliads... I have never seen these die after flowering, though they have hundreds of rosettes, and only a few flower... but still, no brown, sad looking dead centers later in the year.
Stunning!
Yes, stunning indeed!
Marilyn is checking up on the ID for this plant with the folks at UCBBG and will let me know as soon as they have time to get to it.
Image taken at night with flash.
Edit: Puya alpestris
This message was edited Sep 26, 2005 4:26 PM
I'm not going to tell you what expletives escaped my mouth when I opened up that last pic Candy! Suffice to say I'm still stuttering trying to compose myself! How do you manage daily life with that thing around? I'm be constantly in a daze....
-Julie
I ended up leaving it on the front porch for that very reason. I've never had a plant that elicited comments from every person that sees it. Men, women, children....... even DH who is not a plant person thinks it is spectacular!
Yup, that one is just magic!
Isn't it funny how so many of us plant obsessed people have spouses who couldn't care less about plants? LOL My DH shocked me yesterday. I was forcing him to take a tour of my succulents (I do this foreced tour of my flowers about once a month ;-), and he actually volunteered an opinion about the Jades: "I really love the shape of these leaves and the way the plant grows....it just looks really nice." I was flabbergasted! LOL So I wonder what he'd think if he saw a Jade in bloom :-)
-Julie
Look what you all post when I'm gone for a few days.. those are just beautiful.. thanks for the photos both Candy and Palmbob.. wow.
A friend here sent me four seeds for the one in the first photo.. one seed germinated and the seedling is a little bigger than a pin head.. god, can you imagine how long it will take to grow up... lol.. I am just happy and shocked the darn thing germinated. One can dream...
I received a reply from pekasky(Marilyn) today regarding the identity on this Puya.
It was an incorrect ID made by the source of the donation and since it wasn't blooming at auction time, there was no reason to question the validity of that ID. After reviewing the images I've posted the folks at the UCB Botanical Garden have concurred with palmbob's ID of either P. alpestris or P. berteroniana.
Thanks pb and Marilyn for setting the record straight....or at least straighter than it was. I'll see about having the images removed and/or moved within the PlantFiles entries.
Did you get it from Annie's?
http://www.anniesannuals.com/signs/p%20-%20r/puya_alpestris.htm
No this came from the auction at the UC Berkeley Spring Plant Sale http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/505163/
I was recently told that Puyas won't do well here in southern baja because it doesn't get cold enough. Does anyone know if that is true, or if there are any species that might do well here? I'm crazy about those gorgeous flowers!
Looks like Puya berteroniana to me. We have lots of them here at the foot of the Andes Mountains. Puya chilensis likes the coastal areas.
Join us at the Roundup in Chile (Oct 2005) and you will see P. berteroniana, P. chilensis, P. coerulea and P. venusta in full bloom in the wild, plus many other amazing Chilean native plants, shrubs and trees (Jubaea chilensis and Araucaria araucana forests among others).
Hugs,
Ursula
Well, it doesn't get very cold in Berkeley either, bajarad, and they flower very well at the UC Botanic Garden. And, of course, at Happenstance's, but I think she gets colder than we do at the Garden. From what Ursula says, it sounds like it can take some cold but would be fine where you are. I say give one a try!
Winter here in my corner of 10a (probably closer to 10b as a micro-climate)
Over the last 7 years winter lows 37-39F for a few hours in the early morning hours for a few weeks. No frost, lots of wind and rain.
Summer daytime highs 85-110F, nights cool off to 50-55F.
At Berkeley Botanic Garden, lows can get below freezing overnight in the winter. I had to use crop covers a couple of times winter before last. Summer daytime highs are usually cooler than at Happenstance's. It seldom gets over 90 at the Garden, and is usually 75-80. I don't know about night temps - if they're anything like here at home (12 miles NW, and about 2000 feet lower), they're in the low 50s.
