Latest news with #HilaryChappin
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Rare 50-year-old plant finally flowers 20ft tall dominating Midland garden
A green-thumbed gardener was left gobsmacked when a rare plant she purchased 50 years ago finally bloomed, now towering over her house at an impressive 20ft (6m) tall. Hilary Chappin, 82, originally planted the agave in a small pot after buying it in London half a century ago when her daughter, now 52, was just a toddler. She housed it in a conservatory and has even relocated with it three times, eventually planting it outdoors when it outgrew its indoor space. Read more: Birmingham Airport incident live Now, Hilary has been rewarded with the stunning rare flower, which has shot up 20ft into the air and dominates her Midlands garden. She expressed her delight when she realised the plant, a member of the asparagus family, was about to bloom. Telford-based Hilary said: "I cannot tell you how excited I was when I realised it was going to happen; I was jumping up and down. "The first time I noticed any change to it was in April and since the middle of April it has grown 20ft tall." Over the years, she has taken great care of it, moving it indoors during the winter to shield it from the harsh British weather. When it eventually became too large to move inside, she resorted to covering it with a fleece to protect it from the cold. Hilary added: "I bought it when I lived in London 50 years ago and it was a little plant in a pot and it grew and it grew, and I re-potted it into a couple of pots. First we moved to Ironbridge and I had it there in a pot. "I used to bring it inside in winter because they are frost-tender. "So I looked after it, then when I came here it was so big I planted it in the garden. "Every winter for the last 23 years I have wrapped it in fleece to protect it from the frost, and suddenly this year it has sent up this flower spike."
BBC News
06-08-2025
- General
- BBC News
Owner amazed by agave plant in Telford after 50 years with family
An agave plant, tended by its owner for 50 years from pot to garden, is about to bloom for the first time, with its stalk now more than 20ft (six metres) high and towering over the home where it resident Hilary Chappin bought the plant when her daughter, now 52, was a toddler and they were living in picked out a spiky species in a small pot for a conservatory area and has kept it ever since, taking it to her next three Shropshire homes and eventually placing it outside when it got too April, she saw the plant was changing and expected "a little spike", but it is now reaching for the sky, displaying "incredible branches" with yellow buds nearly ready to open. She said: "I'm 82 now and I never thought that it would grow in my lifetime and I certainly never thought it would flower, because they usually are in glass houses."Agaves only bloom once in their lives, she said, adding she was "thrilled". The plant lived in a pot with her in Broseley and Ironbridge, but had grown so large when the family moved to Telford 23 years ago, she decided to plant it outside."I thought afterwards [it] was quite a silly thing to do because you never see them out of doors," she covered it with a garden fleece in the winter and sometimes she and her husband had to rush out and protect it, if the weather forecast predicted said it even survived the winter of 2010 which she remembered as being "very, very cold".That year, she even stuffed straw in it, she said, adding: "It's quite a dangerous thing to do because they're very spiky."Ms Chappin said she didn't know whether it was climate change or this year's warm weather that had prompted the buds, but she saw the first shoot in the spring. Follow BBC Shropshire on BBC Sounds, Facebook, X and Instagram.
