The Agave Americana can reach heights of 6 feet and widths of 10 feet in its everyday form of spiny-edged leaves. More widely known as a Century Plant, the perennial is commonly believed to bloom once every 100 years. A more accurate estimate is that it blooms once after 10-30 years of growth, never to bloom again.

Sherman and Evelyn Swalm bought their plant about 20 years ago from a nursery in Eddiceton. He planted it in a now-obscured pot in their Brookhaven backyard, where it recently bloomed, with a stalk reaching approximately 25 feet in height, bearing pale yellow blooms at the top.