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Puya berteroniana and chilensis


freakypalmguy

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After seeing the Puya alpestris in bloom with it's unbelievable flowers at the Quail a few months back, I've been looking to get one. I was able to find Puya berteroniana (turquoise) and Puya chilensis (yellow) on the Internet a few months back. Does anyone have any experience with these? Let's here about it and see some pics please.

Here are two pics of my new plants.

Puya berteroniana

post-1261-1254234848_thumb.jpg

Puya chilensis

post-1261-1254234857_thumb.jpg

Matt in Temecula, CA

Hot and dry in the summer, cold with light frost in the winter. Halfway between the desert and ocean

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Matt - the Puya genus has some very large bromeliads. Are these species some of the monsters? :blink:

Ron. :)

Coral Gables, FL 8 miles North of Fairchild USDA Zone 10B

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Matt - the Puya genus has some very large bromeliads. Are these species some of the monsters? :blink:

Ron. :)

They are Ron, they get a massive, unbelievable flower with some serious drool factor.

Matt

Matt in Temecula, CA

Hot and dry in the summer, cold with light frost in the winter. Halfway between the desert and ocean

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Matt , puya love the Mediterranean climate, ok you have a Mediterranean climate.

Edited by gyuseppe

GIUSEPPE

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Matt , puya love the Mediterranean climate, ok you have a Mediterranean climate.

Thank you Gyuseppe, it is semi Mediterranean, but we get some extremes here as well.

Matt

Matt in Temecula, CA

Hot and dry in the summer, cold with light frost in the winter. Halfway between the desert and ocean

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Where and what were the damages? I would not mind getting some too.

Len

Vista, CA (Zone 10a)

Shadowridge Area

"Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are."

-- Alfred Austin

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Where and what were the damages? I would not mind getting some too.

Here's a link Potatoe Rock Nursery. I actually found them through Ebay, but you can buy directly from them and avoid Evil bay. They shipped quickly, had good communication, and were healthy plants in 4" pots.

Matt

Matt in Temecula, CA

Hot and dry in the summer, cold with light frost in the winter. Halfway between the desert and ocean

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Where and what were the damages? I would not mind getting some too.

Here's a link Potatoe Rock Nursery. I actually found them through Ebay, but you can buy directly from them and avoid Evil bay. They shipped quickly, had good communication, and were healthy plants in 4" pots.

Matt

I assume you already know that these will form huge clumps and are viciously thorny? Give them lots of room, and having gardened around some seriously big clumps of various Puya species, I would recommend that they always be planted where you have the room for an 8 foot wide clump, will not have to brush against it when trying to squeeze by, can give it a nice sunny slope with room to spread out, and always plant it within a large area of weed fabric covered with mulch, so you never have to reach into the foliage mass and pull weeds.

There are some great examples of various Puya species at the Huntington Botanic Garden, San Francisco and University of Calif. at Berkeley Botanic Gardens to see the differences between the various species. Another mail order source for Puyas in general is www.anniesannuals.com, who usually has at least 4 to 6 different species available at any one time. They would tend to be a bit larger than the ones in your photos if purchased at Annies Annuals, but these are fast once they get into the ground...

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Where and what were the damages? I would not mind getting some too.

Here's a link Potatoe Rock Nursery. I actually found them through Ebay, but you can buy directly from them and avoid Evil bay. They shipped quickly, had good communication, and were healthy plants in 4" pots.

Matt

I assume you already know that these will form huge clumps and are viciously thorny? Give them lots of room, and having gardened around some seriously big clumps of various Puya species, I would recommend that they always be planted where you have the room for an 8 foot wide clump, will not have to brush against it when trying to squeeze by, can give it a nice sunny slope with room to spread out, and always plant it within a large area of weed fabric covered with mulch, so you never have to reach into the foliage mass and pull weeds.

There are some great examples of various Puya species at the Huntington Botanic Garden, San Francisco and University of Calif. at Berkeley Botanic Gardens to see the differences between the various species. Another mail order source for Puyas in general is www.anniesannuals.com, who usually has at least 4 to 6 different species available at any one time. They would tend to be a bit larger than the ones in your photos if purchased at Annies Annuals, but these are fast once they get into the ground...

Thank you for the info Bahia, good tip as I have a lot of room, but I also have a lot of weeds.

Matt

Matt in Temecula, CA

Hot and dry in the summer, cold with light frost in the winter. Halfway between the desert and ocean

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Hi Matt,

I bought a few species of Puya a couple of months back, ready to plant out shortly.

Left to right are P. berteroniana, P. chilensis, P. venusta and Fascicularia bicolor, a similar but much smaller plant.

post-1935-1254442217_thumb.jpg

For anyone in Australia who is interested in these plants, I got them from Wood bridge Nursery, just south of Hobart - they have an online mail order site here

Cheers,

Jonathan

South Arm, Tasmania, Australia - 42° South

Mild oceanic climate, with coastal exposure.

 

Summer: 12°C (53°F) average min, to 21°C (70°F) average daily max. Up to 40°C (104°F max) rarely.

 

Winter: 6°C (43°F) average min, to 13°C (55°F) average daily max. Down to 0°C (32°F) occasionally, some light frost.

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Nice ones Jonathan, I wish I could have found larger plants, but was just happy to get a few. I did find a 1gal. P. alpestris that is being shipped as we speak.

Matt

Matt in Temecula, CA

Hot and dry in the summer, cold with light frost in the winter. Halfway between the desert and ocean

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  • 3 weeks later...

Matt,

I used to grow P. berteroniana and chilensis and they both do well in our climate, very cold hardy. I quit growing them because of the weed problem and I got tired of being stuck. They are rather viscious to work around. Mrs. Bancroft who lives near me had a P. berteroniana bloom several years ago, and it was so spectacular it made the news papers.

Dick

Richard Douglas

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Matt,

I used to grow P. berteroniana and chilensis and they both do well in our climate, very cold hardy. I quit growing them because of the weed problem and I got tired of being stuck. They are rather viscious to work around. Mrs. Bancroft who lives near me had a P. berteroniana bloom several years ago, and it was so spectacular it made the news papers.

Dick

Hi Dick,

That's really good to know that they grew well for you. I haven't planted them yet, so I think I will take the advice to plant weed cloth under them. I also have some thick, elbow length, leather welding gloves that are perfect for jobs like these.

Matt

Matt in Temecula, CA

Hot and dry in the summer, cold with light frost in the winter. Halfway between the desert and ocean

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There is a giant form of Puya chilensis that comes from Argentina near the border with Chile. Also normally Puya chilensis has yellow flowers but there is also a much rarer maroon/burgundy colored form that someone has named P. quillotana.

I got a P. beteroniana seedling a number of years ago. It's still a single rosette but now probably about four feet diameter.

I've got a huge Puya of some kind on the cul-de-sac that blooms with many spikes every year but they are very, very small flowers that appear black with a hint of metallic green. I've always wanted to thin this one out, but the reverse spines are so nasty that I just gave up.

-Ron-

Please click my Inspired button. http://yardshare.com/myyard.php?yard_id=384

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts.

Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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There is a giant form of Puya chilensis that comes from Argentina near the border with Chile. Also normally Puya chilensis has yellow flowers but there is also a much rarer maroon/burgundy colored form that someone has named P. quillotana.

I got a P. beteroniana seedling a number of years ago. It's still a single rosette but now probably about four feet diameter.

I've got a huge Puya of some kind on the cul-de-sac that blooms with many spikes every year but they are very, very small flowers that appear black with a hint of metallic green. I've always wanted to thin this one out, but the reverse spines are so nasty that I just gave up.

Hi Ron,

Try some thick welding gloves. the thorns do not penetrate them.

Matt in Temecula, CA

Hot and dry in the summer, cold with light frost in the winter. Halfway between the desert and ocean

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