ALIEN!

5 years ago, I found these two clearance plants at Wallmart. It was May, and they try and get rid of everything they can at that point. One plant was a golden pine, which was 10 inches tall and 5 bucks. The other was some sort of agave, a form of aloe, that grow in mexico, arizona, and new mexico. it was about 6 inches tall and was 7 bucks. I planted them both on the southern side of my house. Now the golden pine is about 5 feet tall, and about three feet wide. It has nice purple seed pods and is a bright green with yellow branch tips. I hope it goes a full 9 feet tall and 5 feet wide which is about maximum height. Now the agave is about 5 feet wide, and about 4 feet tall. I was out today doing some trimming and watering, when I noticed an alien growing from the center of the agave. Crap, it is a century plant. Now these usually go about 10 years before stem and flowering. This has been only five. Too much water and fertilizer? Too much sun? Global Warming? For whatever reason, the flowering has begun. Now the stem, or "mast" as they call them around here, will grow up to 20 feet in the air and have about 6 branches on each side of the mast with beautiful orange and red flowers that look almost like Lillie's.....Then the friggin' plant dies! Sometimes there are babies that grow around the main plant, and it does seem that there may be a few. In any event, I will film it's ascension as it enjoys it's last year of life. If we could all only have so robust and beautiful a finish! I took one picture with my hand so you get an idea of how big this freakin'
mast is starting out!