Tenby’s Giltar Hotel has brought the summer saga of its ‘death flower’ to a close - with head gardener Simon Rowlands giving a final update on the rare phenomenon as the season comes to an end. Simon and the Giltar are no strangers to big ‘in bloom’ awards - and the seafront accommodation revealed earlier this summer, that it has something even bigger on its hands - which has been described as a ‘natural phenomenon’ by floral experts. The gardens of the hotel which sits on the Esplanade, overlooking South Beach is seeing its agave plant [also known as the death flower] reaching up as far into the sky as the establishment’s gardening team could ever imagine - towering over the sands below, at over 30ft high! The plant [now named Susan} sends up a spike-like stem that will bloom - a natural phenomenon known as the ‘death bloom’. But alas, as is the nature of the plant, and as its nickname suggests, after it flowers, it will begin to die - but hopefully not before putting on a blooming great display! As the agave started to flower over the summer, a lot of hard work over many years has paid off for Simon, who has been providing regular updates on the plant on social media. Simon who picked up another Royal Horticultural Society Wales in Bloom award last year on behalf of the premises, for ‘best hotel with a frontage display’ and again a ‘gold’ award at this year’s Tenby in Bloom contest, previously gave some insight into the history of the plant. “Many years ago we planted a little tiny agave, that was in the 1990s, so it’s got to be nearly 30 years old now,” he said. “Now, it’s absolutely huge. It’s called the death flower, because once it flowers, the plant will die,” explained Simon.
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