Thursday 22 April 2010

Strange flower

And this is a real one and not one of my recent wacky creations lol.

Me being the aster gardener that I am ( he he) am not entirely sure what it is...I think perhaps an agave ?



All of a sudden this huge spike has appeared in the middle and is covered in what looks like loads of mini bananas lol.



They don't seem to flower any more than this though as the bottom ones are just dying off. Any ideas ?
And yes those are huge dandelions you see....the whole garden is covered with them and I am slowly clearing them :-) I manged to crop out the dead trees but they need to be dealt with by a tree surgeon as they are huge.

With all these orders, at the mo my mini flowers are taking priority over my full sized ones :-)




16 comments:

  1. It looks like a Yuka plant to me but I have never seen one with yellow spikes before.

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  2. Hi Jayne...

    My little Master Gardener says that this is an
    Aloe barbarensis ... your plant will bloom year after year without dieing unlike the Agave...

    VERY Pretty...

    Hugs,
    Jodi

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  3. OMG! Your aloe vera flowered!!!! My mum has been growing aloe for the longest time and she has the greenest fingers but I don't think her aloes have ever flowered. Gotta asked her tonight. I love aloe vera, they are like a panacea, including hair loss (according to mummy)..lol. Recently, they have used it to treat cancer and AIDs.

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  4. It sure looks like an agave, but really don't know as we don't have any such nice plants here in the freezing zone :D It looks nice though, you might get some nice ideas from it :)

    Ira

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  5. Hi Jayne, it's an agave. Since it has bloomed it will die.That's agaves' destiny. But a new one will grow from its roots, like a phoenix. Have fun gradening, I've a black thumb :o( Rosanna

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  6. Jayne, that Agave you have there, could die once its flowered. Some of them do. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news..xxxx

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  7. Oh my... they really do look like mini bananas!! LOL I have no idea what they are though, sorry.

    Dandelions are evil.... well, theyre not wanted or loved much in my garden at least but try as ya might the beggars keep growing, Aaaaarrrggghhhh and you have them ready to reseed!!! just snip off those fluffy white heads cos theyre the seeds or youll have ten times as many next year!!!!

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  8. It is an Aloe Vera :0)

    Aloe vera has been widely grown as an ornamental plant in European gardens since at least the 15th century, popular with modern gardeners as it has interest as a medicinal plant and survives in areas of low natural rainfall. Aloe vera has been long known as for it's great healing properties. Some studies show that it heals wounds by increasing the rates of healing.
    Hugs Julia xx

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  9. Yep, Jayne, that's an agave. The plant will die after the flower spike finishes but you should get some "pups" from the mother plant, similar to a bromiliad.

    Tabs

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  10. Thanks everyone

    We have 1 for Yukka, 4 for Aloe and 4 for agave lol.

    I am going for Aloe barbadensis - Richards suggestion. I like that fancy name :-)

    Thanks Jodi and thank Richard for me.

    I looked that up and that is definitely what it is.

    I am glad it won't die...that seems so sad to me...all that work to put out the flowers then poof it dies...at least they go out in a blaze of glory I guess.

    Susan...tell your mom to completely ignore hers and maybe they'll flower :-) I've never touched this...never been able to see it until I started clearing out the weeds from around it. No water, no care zip, nada and it puts on this beautiful show for me.

    My Nan used to use it for medicinal purposes as well Susan. It was some old Indian remedy and we'd get it rubbed all over us. My mom has drunk the juice for arthritis as well.

    MJ I've thought about trying to make them before but they would be very hard lol.

    Wendie aren't they like mini bananas...they crack me up lol.

    Yes I found out about how nasty dandelions are last week. I didn't what them going to seed actually meant and was just happy the birdies had something to nibble on. I am useless gardening lol.

    I couldn't have cut of the heads if I wanted to. Our entire back yard is full of them so there must be thousands. I should take a pic lol.

    Lots of wonderful info here...thanks ladies...maybe I'll bring some more gardening problems to the blog :-)

    I need gardening help big time :-(

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  11. wow- it is beautiful!!! Ohhhh, how I wish I could just come and visit and pluck out dandelions for you. How come I keep having that losing number on the lottery? You know if I win I'm gonna be out there the very next week bugging you and poking around in your garden :)

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  12. Oh Kim come down and bug me....please lol.

    The garden terrifies me. I did plant a geranium, hydrangea and azalea in the front last weekend. I had to dig out all our crappy soil and replace it with the right kind of soil. Hard work.

    I haven't even begun to think about the jungle out back.

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  13. You have a great blog and your mini creations are wonderful there is an award on my blog for you
    xx

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  14. How special, mini bananas, you are so lucky!!

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  15. Thank you for following my blog.
    That plant is an agave, unfortunately he usually die down after having a flower, to me anyway ..... in southern Spain, they grow everywhere.
    groetjes Ingrid

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