The Garfield Park Conservatory has another agave whopper on its hands. Its 35-year-old agave guiengola (nicknamed "Guien", pronounced Gwen) is showing extraordinary growth, up to 9 inches in 24 hours at last count, in the Desert House.
Conservatory floriculturist Ray Jorgensen says, "It's just going crazy!" In his 22 years at the conservatory, he's only seen a handful of agaves bloom.
In 2019, an agave americana ("century plant") named Maya topped out at 38'. A hole had to be cut in the ceiling to accommodate its rapid growth.
At 15 feet and growing, Guien is expected to bloom in the next few weeks and then slowly die. The plants only bloom once in their lifetimes and, in this case, that's about 35 years.
When asked why the conservatory has had such success with these plants," Jorgensen replied, "It's like an agave spa in here!"
See it while it's blooming at 300 N. Central Park Avenue. (garfieldconservatory.org)
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