When Greg and I were in Amsterdam we went to the Botanical Garden. I flew halfway around the world to see gunnera for the first time, a plant that grows incredibly well in Portland. I had no idea it existed! I also witnessed the biggest agave I’d ever seen in the flesh and a Dasylirion acrotrichum. I was totally fascinated by how soft (looking) and kinetic such a spiky plant could be. I fell in love.
Two years ago I picked up a Dasylirion texanum at Rare Plant Research.
It’s taken its sweet time bulking up but it’s finally starting to come into its own.
The filifers are perfectly coiffed.
Those perfect ribbons of green sport teeth that glow in the sunlight.
I can’t wait to see how it fills out the berm as it continues to grow.
It’s a tough SOB, zones 5a-11. It can form a trunk (which may be partly buried beneath the ground), with an eventual height and width of 3-5′, depending on who you ask. It needs well drained soil but handles the ample moisture in Portland well. It’s heat and drought tolerant, liking sun to part shade. It has handled the recent freeze as well as some scorching heat with no sign of stress at all. It will eventually form a 9-15′ flower stalk. BITCHIN’.
