It was touch and go, but an agave is about to have its day in the sun.
The agave salmiana, planted by Larnach Castle owner Margaret Barker 22 years ago, is heading upwards and has started to spring out into flower.
Mrs Barker bought the plant in Dunedin with an eye that one day it would break out into flower.
But it took its time. A plant native to Mexico, it was always going to be a challenge to get big and strong enough to flower.
“Up here we are not exactly the Mexican desert. But it never gave up. It needed to get the sugars into it to give it enough energy to start growing and flowering,” Mrs Barker said.
The plant kept growing.
It started to break out in July as it was quite a warm winter, Mrs Barker said.Then some frosts hit and the plant struggled.
But with some warm days of late the climb started as the vertical floral stem headed skywards, with flowers branching out.
Now it appears to be all coming out in full bloom with the flowers turning yellow.
Mrs Barker said it had been well worth the wait.
She admitted she has been looking at the plant daily ever since it started to head skyward.
Unfortunately she is heading off to Australia in a few days so may miss the full flowering, though she expects to see the remnants when she is back.
The plant is monocarpic in that it flowers only once and then dies.
Mrs Barker said she hoped there would be a pup off the plant which could be planted for it to live on.
The agave salmiana is dedicated to German prince and botanist Joseph zu Salm-Reifferscheidt-Dyck, who was born in 1773 and lived into his 90s.