It has been 50 years in the making but a Telford gardener has been left 'jumping up and down' after witnessing an incredibly rare 20ft bloom from one of her beloved plants.
00:00Look at this crazy size. Hilary it's your plant what is it? I've never seen one. It's called an agave and it's native to Mexico but I've had this plant since it was a little tiny thing possibly for about 50 years now.
00:20So you bought it where then? I lived in London at the time. Yeah and you thought I want something nice and small for me be conservatory on the shelf. Yes I've got a sort of lean to that I called a conservatory. Yeah. And so I wanted something a bit exotic to go in it. So this little spiky plant and it grew and it grew and I repotted it and repotted it until it was into a big pot. Yeah.
00:49And we moved then to Ironbridge and so I used to take it in in the winter because they're tender and the frost is no good for them. But then when we moved here about 23 years ago I decided it had to be in the garden.
01:08Yeah. I thought it got two chances it could either live or die and so every winter I've wrapped it in fleece and looked after it to keep it away from the frost.
01:21And this year, 50 years later, it has rewarded me by this amazing plant.
01:30I mean that's just crazy. And we've still got the flower heads to come out. We'll try and get a picture of what it will look like. You said it should be yellow when it flowers.
01:39Yeah. These are the only little buds at the moment that each bud will have a flower.
01:43Yeah. So how long has it taken to, when did you first start seeing this central stem shooting up?
01:51It was April, middle of April. I just noticed that it was changing in the middle.
01:58And then it grew about three inches, three or four inches a day.
02:04That's crazy isn't it.
02:05And it's just gone up and up. It's now taller than the roof almost.
02:08Yeah. So I bet when you bought it all those years ago in London, it didn't come with a little label saying, may grow to 20 foot.
02:17I mean, what do you reckon that is in height? That's got to be.
02:20I think it's about 20 foot.
02:22Yeah. And you said it'll probably, might go another foot or two yet as well.
02:26Yeah, could do.
02:27Yeah. So are you having to feed it with water and plant feed or any of that?
02:32Leaving it alone because what's happened over the years, it's built up this huge base, which is where the energy to send up this shoot has come from.
02:45Sadly, because I'm quite fond of it, after all of this time of looking after it, it will die.
02:51Yeah, that's the thing, isn't it? It's its final flurry, isn't it?
02:55This is its purpose in life to get to this stage.
02:57And apparently in the wild, what happens is the stem falls, crashes down and all the seeds then scatter.
03:08Yeah.
03:08And that means that it's moved away from the parent plant.
03:14So will you be trying to harvest some seeds, do you think?
03:17I don't think so.
03:19You've had your fun.
03:21I have. I have got a baby. I have got a baby from it because it sends up what's called pups, little growths on the outside.
03:30And I have managed to take those off it during various years.
03:35So yeah, that little baby we've got, that's about 10 years old, do you think?
03:38About 10 years old now.
03:39So I may plant it out, but at 82, I really don't expect it to flower.
03:46Well, I won't see it.
03:47Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:48And whoever comes to live here, maybe won't wrap it up every winter.
03:54Yeah.
03:55I mean, it's a lovely development here.
04:00The houses are kind of got a Spanish-y feel to them.
04:04And that just, this plant works so well in that setting, doesn't it?
04:08It does.
04:08Yeah.
04:09Yeah.
04:10It looks glorious.
04:12So by the end of this year, it'll be no more?
04:17Yes.
04:17No, it won't.
04:18And I think I shall, because the size of the actual trunk of it right down here is huge, the bowl,
04:26I think I shall have to have some tree-felling people in to take it down.
04:30Yeah, yeah, to get all that root system and everything out.
04:32Yeah.
04:33So have you given it a name?
04:36I haven't.
04:37I don't believe you.
04:38I don't believe you.
04:39I called it a triffid.
04:41Yeah.
04:42But it's not a triffid.
04:43Yeah.
04:43It's just an agarve, that's its name.
04:46Yeah, yeah.
04:47And it's very special.
04:49And I'm really, I think it's quite wonderful that I've lived to see it bloom.
04:54I never thought that it would do it.
04:56Not in Telford, anyway.
04:57So, were you, during that 15 years, was there a point where you became aware it may flower?
05:04No.
05:05This may happen.
05:05No, there was no sign.
05:07Yeah, yeah.
05:07Not until this year.
05:09Yeah, fantastic.
05:10I guess that, maybe these, maybe because it's been a fairly dry year, that's helped.
05:15It's been very warm, this spring, hasn't it?
05:17Yeah, yeah.
05:17And so, yeah, I think it has been exceptional.
05:21Wow.
05:21And so, we've got the exceptional blooming.
05:25Yeah.
05:25They do bloom in glasshouses.
05:29Yeah.
05:29In Whistley and in the botanical gardens in Birmingham.
05:33Yeah.
05:33And sometimes they have to take the roof off the glasshouse to let them go out.
05:41Yeah.
05:42Because they're so tall.
05:44That is fantastic.
05:45Well, thank you for getting us down to see what might be possibly a once-in-a-lifetime event.
