Furcraea parmentieri Walnut Creek, California

In the summer of 2005 I heard tales of a huge, yuccoid plant with enormous strap-like leaves and a stout trunk growing in front of a north Seattle city light substation. This plant turned out to be a thriving Furcraea, a genus of magnificent plants not typically associated with climates colder than California. So began my search for a cold-hardy Furcraea, which fortunately came up quite successful! These are the same plant that has been known as F. longaeva in California, and F. bedinghausii is probably another synonym or at least a very similar plant. The trunk may grow anywhere from 2 - 15' (about 6 - 10' is usual) before producing an amazing flower stalk 30-40' high! White flowers are followed by hundreds, sometimes thousands of small bulbils that can be used to start new plants. At this point, the plant dies, but then you can start over with thousands more little baby plants! Furcraea parmentieri tolerates drought and heat, but it thrives quite well on moisture and in cool weather. This collection is from a cultivated plant in a rather cold garden in Walnut Creek, California. Expect hardiness to be at least 20 °F for mature plants, perhaps lower.