00:00So Hilary, we're back in Telford and the agave, it's come out to play, it's flowering.
00:07Yeah, it is. Isn't it looking amazing?
00:09It looks great and I tell you what, it's obviously got some nectar up there because them wasps and bees are loving them.
00:15Yeah, do you remember, I was hoping for hummingbirds, but we haven't had hummingbirds.
00:19But loads and loads of insects have come, all sorts, bees, wasps, those sort of hover fly things.
00:30It's been amazing to watch and if you notice, if you can see at the bottom already, they must have done their job because they are, it is changing.
00:41Yeah.
00:42The top of it is where it's all fluffy and just freshly opened.
00:46And even the bottom leaves there, they're kind of fading now because once it's flowered, it's served its purpose and it'll die back.
00:54So you can see how it's putting all that energy into flowering now, can't you?
00:57Yes, yes, all the leaves have started to go yellow and they're collapsing.
01:02And the bowl, this amazing bowl that sent this shoot up, it's all started to desiccate and really looks sort of a bit of a mess.
01:12So just give us a recap then.
01:14So it's an agave plant.
01:16Yes, it's an Americana.
01:18Yeah.
01:18That's its actual name.
01:20And you bought it when?
01:21I think about 50 years ago when my daughter was a toddler.
01:26Yeah.
01:27And I've had it all that time.
01:29Was it in London?
01:30Did you buy it in London?
01:31Yes, in London.
01:31I had a house in London, my very first house and my first garden.
01:35But it had a sort of lean-to and conservatory type thing.
01:40And I bought this rather exotic looking spiky thing to go in there.
01:45And then I moved two years later.
01:51I moved up to Broseley in Shropshire.
01:56Everyone knows Broseley.
01:57And then to Ironbridge.
02:00And then finally to this house.
02:02Yeah.
02:02And I've been here for 23 years.
02:04And you get a decent bit of sun, don't you, when it's out?
02:09Not like today.
02:10When it's out, not like today.
02:11Yeah.
02:11It's been lovely and it's south-facing, this house.
02:14So the garden is all very, very sunny.
02:17And I made sure when I planted it out in the garden that it had lots of gravel underneath it and rubble and stuff.
02:25We were doing quite a lot of landscaping.
02:27And so I was able to put rubber underneath it to make sure that it was going to have good drainage.
02:33I knew it would need that.
02:35And apart from that, and apart from wrapping it up every winter, whenever there was frost coming,
02:42I made sure that I wrapped it in fleece or sometimes we would throw a sheet over it if it was late at night and we suddenly heard there was going to be a frost.
02:53But anyway, I've looked after it, kept it for all of that time and it's rewarded me with this wonderful flowering spike this year.
03:01And so the spike that it's on, how tall do we think it is?
03:06What would you guess that is?
03:07Well, we think we got to 20 feet, didn't we?
03:09Yeah.
03:09And so I actually think it's more like 25 feet.
03:13Yeah, yeah.
03:14It's been well done.
03:15Yeah.
03:15So it didn't come with a little tag saying, when you bought it in a little pot, saying, we'll grow to approximately 25 feet.
03:21No, it did not.
03:23And actually, it's only quite recently that I've read more and more about them.
03:28Yeah.
03:28It is extraordinary.
03:29I mean, they do flower occasionally in this country, down in Torquay and those sorts of areas.
03:35But to have one flowering in the West Midlands and in Telford is, I think, I just think it's an extraordinary achievement.
03:44Not an achievement for me, an achievement for the plant.
03:48Well, look, I've had a lot of plants in my garden and none of them last that long.
03:54So I'd say it's an achievement on your part as well.
03:56You've obviously, you know, done what it needed to be done and keeping it, like, wrapped up in winter and protecting it.
04:02A lot of people for all those years would not have been on top of it.
04:06So, you know, you've got to give yourself some credit there.
04:09So it's, the stem that it's on, was that, did it have a stem last year?
04:15Was that a stem that's gradually grown?
04:16No, literally, it was just a spiky plant with its leaves all sticking up.
04:22No sign that anything was going to happen until 14th of April this year.
04:27Yeah.
04:27And then the centre of it, I noticed, was changing and was beginning to grow.
04:33And, oh my God, I was so excited.
04:37I can't tell you because I realised then it might actually be doing this amazing thing of, it's called a death bloom.
04:46Ah, and that's because once it's flowered, it's...
04:49Because it literally is the final thing that it does before it dies.
04:53Have you tried to work out if you can dry the stem out?
04:59It seems too criminal to just, like, dig it up, put it in the green bean.
05:04Well, I have a friend who lives in Spain and he says it will stand for some time.
05:10Yeah.
05:10Certainly through the winter, rather like, well, lots of plants, don't they?
05:15And the autumn is a time when you get lots of wonderful things and then in the winter you get frosts on grasses and stuff like that.
05:23Yeah.
05:23So hopefully it will do that.
05:26Yeah.
05:26But I don't want it to fall and damage any property or anybody's car or anything like that.
05:34Yeah, I'm just wondering if there's a...
05:35It is leaning towards me.
05:37Yeah.
05:37Yeah.
05:38I'm just wondering if one of those heads could be dried out and preserved for...
05:43Do you know what I mean?
05:44Yeah, just as a feature, you know.
05:46It would be wonderful.
05:46Yeah.
05:47I don't know that I can do that.
05:48Yeah.
05:48But I do think it is going to set seed.
05:52And the seed needs to ripen, doesn't it, before...
05:54Ah.
05:55So I'm...
05:55I mean, I don't know what it looks like.
05:57I've never had one before.
05:58Yeah, yeah.
05:59But I guess the seed will ripen during the autumn and into the winter and then it will drop or, like you say, I might have to have it cut down.
06:10In which case, I'll save some of the seed and see what happens.
06:16I'm often trying to grow some more.
06:19And is that typical, then?
06:20It'll be like a 50-year lifespan and then flowers...
06:23Well, they call them century plant, don't they?
06:25That's its common name.
06:27Yeah, yeah.
06:27But I don't think it is a century that they have to be around for.
06:30Yeah.
06:31I think 30, 40...
06:33Well...
06:33This one is 50 years old.
06:34Yeah.
06:34And I remember it because I bought it.
06:37But generally, I think they're about 30 years old when they flower.
06:42If they're in a glass house...
06:44Yeah.
06:44You know, and protected.
06:46I mean, although this has been protected, it's outside.
06:49Yeah, it's been out in the elements, hasn't it?
06:51Yeah.
06:51That's the crazy thing about it.
06:53Absolutely.
06:54Yeah, it'll be kind of a shame to see it.
06:56I know, I've become so fond of it.
06:58Yeah, definitely, definitely.
07:00It's become almost a personality in its own right to get people driving in to look at it.
07:04Have you given it a name?
07:06No.
07:07I don't believe you.
07:08Well, it was a pause then.
07:09I know.
07:10Alfred the Agave or something.
07:13No, maybe Alfred.
07:15Yeah, Alfred the Agave.
07:17Alfred the Great.
07:17Alfred the Great, I like it, I like it.
Comments