Puya Bromeliad Species, Chilean Puya

Both Puya and Dyckia thrive here in St George, Utah (zone 8b/9a) depending on the species. There’s only about 3 or 4 aloe species that ...Read Morewill survive here so this is an AMAZING substitute. And in my opinion Puya and Dyckia are much more interesting as they are types of desert Bromeliads. I hope these plants become a lot more common in the Southwest over the next while, because they absolutely thrive here and and add so much beauty. They look so stunning mixed with Yuccas, Agaves, Hesperaloes, and Palms. And they really do stand out quite a bit with their very tropical appearance, and intensely colored flowers.

I started some from seeds from Mesa gardens. Surface sow in a closed glass jar on a bed of moist peatmoss.
Of all the other puya ...Read MoreI grow this one has large leaf edge prickles strong as IRON and very firmly attached to leaf edge. I can see how it can trap & hold things. Even a person falling into the clump may not easily be able to escape. My young plants are over a foot high & wide with dozens of crowded leaves in the symmetrical rosette. Pretty. I will be patient and wait the 10-15 years for bloom. So far it has easily tolerated our 40+ inches of rain and degrees of frost. Since most puyas need cross pollination you would be doing the threatened species a favor to grow at least two, to get good seed.

"...another titanic blossom is being born. No one outside my country will know it; it only grows on these Antarctic shores. it is called ...Read Morechahual (Puya chilensis). This ancestral plant was worshipped by the Araucanians. The ancient Arauco no longer exists. Blood, death, time, and later the epic songs of Alonso de Ercilla, closed the ancient history of a tribe made of clay, rudely awakened from a geological dream to defend its invaded country. When I see its flowers come up again, over centuries of obscure dead, over layers of bloodstained forgetfulness, I believe that the earth's past blooms in spite of what we are, in spite of what we have become. Only the earth goes on being, preserving its own nature.
"But I forgot to describe this flower.
"It's a Bromeliacea with sharp, saw-toothed leaves. It erupts by the roadsides like green fire, arraying its panoply of mysterious emerald swords. And suddenly one colossal flower, a cluster, is born at its waist, an immense green rose as tall as a man. This sole flower, made up of tinier flowers that assemble into a single green cathedral crowned with gold pollen, gleams in the light from the sea. It is the only green flower of its huge size I have ever seen, a solitary monument to the waves."
— Pablo Neruda, Memoirs, p. 301.

I never understood why someone might want to grow this vicious plant- huge rosettes of relatively uninteresting incredibly spiny suckerin...Read Moreg into an impenetable thicket... until I saw the flowers this March- incredible!! THe flower stalks are up to 8' tall, and have huge, complex chartreuse (and I mean shocking chartreuse!) flowers.