Post a Comment On: Blue Heron Blast

[Image] Ron and Lena showed me a beautiful succulent flower recently growing near their home in Cardiff, bright blue. It may be on a very aberrant or eccentric bloom cycle (e.g. every ten years) not sure.

I have spent a little bit of time trying to figure out its name.

I once saw a flower at the Hortus Botanical Gardens in Holland that bloomed every twenty years, first one color in the morning and a completely different color in the afternoon. Then it went back to its deep sleep.

Tried to mail a pic to Doug, but his email firewall is blocking pictures.

Anyway this flower gets prettier and prettier and the color more intense over time.

[Image] Ron and Lena are so sweet, they went out and bought me one of these magnificent plants as a memory to my late father. It turns out that the plant is named Puya Alpestris, also known as the sapphire tower. I will have to verify its bloom schedule. The puya is native to the Chilean Andes. I have just read that it can be quite vicious with its sharp teeth and care should be taken in regards to its ultimate location in your garden.

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The plant is neat in a different way, besides its inherent beauty. My father's mother's last name was Shkarlat, which means sapphire in Polish. The Shkarlat family was wiped out in the holocaust and I do not believe that the name is still extant.

My grandmother lived in the town of Wyszkow, northeast of Warsaw on the Vistula River. The family owned a lumbermill. I believe that a great, great uncle was a noted silversmith, Shmuel Shkarlat. I have a pair of his shabbos candlesticks as does my friend Garry Cohen. I will think of my father and his mother when I look at my sapphire tower!

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Thank you, friends!