In flower now in our crevice garden is the amazing Puya alpestris, a plant better known by its common name of sapphire tower. This native bromeliad to the Chilean Andes south of Santiago, is a plant we really shouldn’t be able to grow, yet here it is in flower. This is growing at the south end of our crevice garden, and we expect that the constructed habit is the reason we’ve been able to succeed with this marginally winter hardy, dryland native. This clump has survived winter temperatures of 11F (2022/23), and 14F (2024/25). During both cold snaps, the foliage tips were severely burned, but the base of the plant remained intact.
We actually purchased the seed in 2018 from a 3,300′ elevation wild collection, as Puya coerulea var. violacea, which also grows in the same area, but when the flowers opened, it was obvious that our plant was the much showier, Puya alpestris. This species actually grows from coastal elevations, all the way to almost 7,000′ elevation, so we’d love to find an even higher altitude collection, if anyone is headed that way.
Below is the spiny-foliage clump before the flower spike began.
Puya alpestris is a magnificent plant. How long until it blooms? Do you plan to offer a Puya sp. anytime in the near future? You once offered the hardy Puya dyckioides and described it as a ‘vigorous grower’, so it must have been at home in the zone 7b/8a nursery environment. From your plant encyclopedia…..perhaps you could trial the protocarnivourous Puya chilensis that slowly reaches 6′ tall and doesn’t flower until 20 years old. Granted this plant may be a danger to small children, but it could give bragging rights above and beyond the ‘century agave’ to anyone able to see it bloom in their garden.
Doug R’s YT PD video posted yesterday:
Oh my! that is a strange and wonderful flower!. thank you for posting this!
I have a Puya alpestris growing in a large pot that I leave on my cactus been here in Chapel Hill (bringing it inside only during the winter months). I’m not sure if it will ever put up a bloom the size of yours, but even if it eventually does something less dramatic I’ll be thrilled.
Thanks for sharing pics. It’s always useful to see how plants perform in home gardens.
Apparently my spell check did not like the word berm.