Now Blooming: Puyas

Name: Now Blooming: Puyas | The Huntington
Start: Sat, Mar 15 - Thu, May 15 2025
Location: The Huntington

Event

See these highly uncommon and spectacular, long-arching inflorescence blooms in deep jewel tones, flowering for a short time in the Desert Garden.

Gardens

Puya are drought-resistant, mainly South American terrestrial bromeliads (Bromeliaceae) that love arid sun. The Huntington has the best collection of these enigmatic plants anywhere in the country. So, unless you’re trekking through the Andes in Chile, Bolivia, Peru, or Ecuador, you won’t have a chance to see rare and arresting bromeliads—such as Puya alpestris and Puya chilensis—shoot spectacular, long-arching inflorescence blooms of blue-green, chartreuse, violet, red, and yellow three to five feet into the sky during their annual springtime bloom.

More Plants "Now Blooming"

Small clusters of long purple blooms on pink flower stalks.

Long pink flower stems extend upwards, with a desert landscape in the background.

Puya with a pink stem and pink and blue flowers.

A bee hovers near a blue flower with yellow pollen.

Puya coerulea var. violacea. Photo by Deborah Miller.

| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Garden

Puya venusta.

| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Two rare bromeliads from Chile grow in the garden: Puya alpestris and P. chilensis. In spring, they burst into bloom with stunning flowers, the former blue-green and the latter chartreuse.

| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens

Puya alpestris. Photo by Deborah Miller.

| The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Garden

Puyas in Bloom

A 2018 tour of Puya in the Desert Garden with The Huntington’s curator of the desert collections, John Trager, turned this writer from a Puya Ignoramus to a Puya Enthusiast.

Learn about Puyas

A well-worn asphalt walking path snakes through a desert garden of cactus and succulants.

The Desert Garden

One of the largest outdoor collections of cacti and succulents in the world, the Desert Garden includes more than 5,000 species of desert plants in sixty landscaped beds.

About the Desert Garden

Peak color is subject to change based on weather patterns, rainfall, high winds, and other factors. Stay up to date with bloom reports on our social media channels. TikTok | Facebook | Instagram

Explore an interactive map of what’s blooming at The Huntington