Rare giant agave plant finally flowers in Norfolk after 19 years in UK first

A giant Mexican plant has flowered for the first time since being planted in an exotic garden 19 years ago.

The Montana Agave has been growing at East Ruston Vicarage Garden in Norfolk run by plantsman Alan Gray and his husband Graham Robeson.

In April this year the plant looked just like two giant spears of asparagus bursting through the spiny deep green leaves below.

But now the couple's patience has been rewarded with a magnificent display of flowers.

Mr Gray said: "And you think oh it's grown another six inches, oh they've grown another six inches and nothing happens and then we had the Winter so we had to cover them to protect them against the frost, and then they start to grow a bit more and a bit more and then suddenly they explode into this great cloud of yellow flowers."

At the world famous Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew they are impressed.

Head of Plant Research Thomas Freeth said: "I did a bit of digging and this species was only formally described to science in 1996 and I understand that this plant is nearly 20 years old so there's a good chance it is the first of its kind to flower.

"Ours are a bit younger than that. Our earliest were planted in 2009. These plants build up their energy over a long period and then have a huge flowering event and then unfortunately pass on."

After all that effort the plants will die after flowering just once.

Mr Gray explained : "It's like all monocarpic plants. What they do is they build up enough strength to send up a flowering stem.

"The flowering stem gets pollinated and then will hopefully set seed for future generations of the same plant can exist and then of course they die."

The garden, which is open to the public, has several more of the rare plants which they hope will flower in years to come.

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