Puya alpestris

Sapphire Tower is an intriguing alpine bromeliad endemic to the Chilean Andes Mountains. Like most members of the genus Puya, Sapphire Tower can be quite spiny with hooked, serrated leaf edges that can make it an intimidating plant in the landscape. What this plant lacks in friendliness it makes up for in beauty, with towers of other-wordly cerulean flowers that emerge from the center of mature rosettes. A magnet for hummingbirds, these incredible displays are long lasting, often persisting for over a month. When not in bloom, plants reach a modest three feet high and wide.

Sapphire Tower is a terrestrial bromeliad, meaning that it prefers to be planted in soil and won’t be suitable for mounting like some other bromeliad varieties. That being said, this species is still very drought tolerant and low maintenance. Individual rosettes are monocarpic and once they bloom they’ll slowly senesce and replace themselves with a number of pups. This growth habit results in a clumping plant that can make a lovely border planting or an attractive feature in a rock garden.

Cold hardy to USDA Zone 9a or to 20 degrees Fahrenheit

For sale are packets of 20 seeds