LAKEWOOD, Colo. — The Lorax by Dr. Seuss might come to mind for visitors at a park in Lakewood.
The gardens at Kendrick Lake have a pair of roughly 25-foot plants with bushy bright yellow flowers on top.
The blooms have grown out of succulents known as Agave Parryi or Parry’s Century Plant.
They rarely bloom.
When they do, it’s hard to miss.
“It takes about 10 years for the plant to store enough energy to shoot out a bloom,” City of Lakewood Greenhouse Manager Keely Foster said. “Even after that 10 years, sometimes it can take up to an additional five to 10 years on top of that. So, anywhere from 10 to 20 years.”
The plant itself is unusual to see along Colorado’s Front Range because it doesn’t normally grow in the state's climate.
“It’s usually found in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico and parts of Nevada in the Great Basin area,” Foster said. “Here in Colorado, we have horrible clay soil, so we actually built up our beds to mimic the desert.”
Lakewood uses organic top soil and a squeegee mix to get the drainage the plants need.
They use rocks as a mulch to conduct heat, which allows desert plants to stay alive during Colorado’s cold winters.
The Century Plant stalks began to grow in the gardens at Kendrick Lake in early May.
“We don’t have a lot of plants that get that big versus, you know, trees and such,” Foster said. “I think it kind of makes itself known, you know. So, it kind of lets you know it’s there and it doesn’t really let you not notice it.”
Lakewood’s Kendrick Lake gardens began after the drought of 2002-2003.
“This actually all used to be Kentucky bluegrass,” Foster said. “And the city experienced some water restrictions. And so they took it upon themselves – the previous horticulturists – to come here and start showing people that you can have color in your garden, you can bring pollinators in, you can bring wildlife in and not use any water.”
This summer, the Century Plants are doing their part to promote waterwise gardening.
“It pulls people into the gardens,” Foster said. “I mean, I’ve had people driving along the streets that are like, ‘I just saw this, and I wanted to know what it was. I’ve never seen anything like that.’”
However, the blooms won’t last much longer.
Foster estimates they have another two weeks.
Once the flowers die, the entire plant dies, too.
Kendrick Lake Park is located at 9351 W. Jewell Ave. in Lakewood.
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