Furcraea parmentieri may well be worth a try.
I hear you ask, "What is the catch?"
I would like to say there is none, but the only problem is that this plant is monocarpic: it will flower only once and subsequently die. Fortunately, this won't happen immediately - this is a plant that spends a decade building up energy in its leaves, stem and roots, all for the purpose of reproducing.
What an end it is, though, with a flower spike 3m tall covered with greenish/white flowers. It will leave a legacy, often producing not seed but numerous viviparous small plantlets on the flower stems ready to start the process again.
Furcraea parmentieri is native to the arid regions of central southern Mexico at altitudes of 2500m-3300m. It can be hardy down to -5degC or lower and thrives in dry, free-draining poor soils with little irrigation once established. It is happy in sun or partial shade but hates permanently wet soil conditions.
At Dunedin Botanic Garden there are many specimens in the Mexican border of the Geographic Collection, near the aviary. Some are labelled Furcraea bedinghausii, which has now been renamed by the botanists as Furcraea parmentieri. One plant is flowering this year and many more are to flower in the next decade.
- Dylan Norfield is the collection curator of the Geographic and Arboretum collections at Dunedin Botanic Garden.
