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Re: Double mystery solved: Help ID?

On Sat, 25 Jul 1998 Jan wrote:
>Mark's plant may have been Echium wildprettii, but my ears pricked with
>the discussions of Doryanthes and Beschorneria. On a recent garden tour
>of Southern France, I saw this plant in at least 3 gardens. I had not a
>clue what it was. My guess was Furcraea, but not with that reddish
>infloresence! And the leaves were too grayish! I look and look at my
>pictures. What could it be? 

Yes, I must admit to being surprised at it being an Echium - one of
the least yucca-like plants to my mind, but in all fairness, Mark did
point out that he ought not have used the analogy and I should not
have been quite so keen to use it as a basis for an ID.

Furcraeas (Mauritian Hemp) appear to be rather popular in S. France
and Italy and several do have a distinctly glaucous cast to the
foliage.  They are quite massive in their growth almost rival ling the
larger Agaves in terms of leaf rosette size.  They are without a
doubt, immensely handsome plants being rather less 'lethal' than
Agaves, thus making them extremely garden worthy.  The variegated
forms are stunningly beautiful and I envy those gardens where they can
be grown.

>It certainly IS a handsome thing! Too bad it's so big and my garden so
>small. I'll never forget the sight of a line of 8 or 9 of these lining
>the approach to the Villa Noailles outside of Grasse, created by Charles
>Viscount de Noailles, outstanding Mediterranean plantsman of the early
>20th century.

I seem to remember reading about this in one of the old RHS journals
and IIRC mention was made of Furcraeas in relation to Villa Noailles.
I'm pretty sure he was a past president of the RHS, certainly he sat
on many of the committees.  I'll try and dig up some info on him - if
I can get into the attic in order to rummage through 25 years of
journals!  Hopefully, someone else here will have the info more
closely to hand - it will save me spending a very dusty afternoon up
there <G>.

David Poole
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