Desert plants

[nachoman]

First up is the century plant. This plant is a type of agave that lives between 5-40 years. A description of the plant can be found here:

http://wc.pima.edu/Bfiero/tucsonecology/...s_paag.htm

The plant grows as a rosette up to about 5 feet in diameter. When conditions are right, the plant will send up a huge bloom stalk to about 12-14 feet high. The top of the stalk opens up to several branches, and puffy yellow flowers. The plant blooms once, and then dies.

To make my model plants, I walked up and down the plastic flower aisle at the local craft store until I found suitable materials. First up is this cluster of small flowers. The individual flowers resemble the rosette of the century plant. Unfortunately, they only scale out to about 3 scale feet in HO, so my plants will be a little small.

   

Once I cut off the individual flowers, I shoved the stem into a block of foam, and painted them using a "cactus green" color craft paint.

   

For the bloom stalk, I found this plastic asparagus fern.