Pineapple Lily

Eucomis bicolor is the plant that makes visitors say 'what on earth is that?' — which, for my money, is the best reaction any plant can provoke. The flower spike looks like a small, exotic pineapple: a dense column of starry, pale green flowers edged with purple, topped by a tuft of leaf-like bracts that gives it the pineapple silhouette. It's unmistakable, slightly absurd, and completely charming.

The flowers are individually small but densely packed — dozens of tiny, starry, green-and-purple blooms spiralling up a stout stem about eighteen inches tall. The overall effect is sculptural and architectural, more like a piece of design than a garden flower. Each flower has a prominent, dark-purple ovary at its centre, which gives the spike a dotted, spotted quality that's unusual and appealing.

It's a South African bulb, which means it wants summer warmth and winter dryness. In mild parts of Britain — the south coast, sheltered urban gardens — it's surprisingly hardy, surviving most winters in the ground with a thick mulch over the bulbs. In colder areas, grow it in a pot and bring it into a frost-free greenhouse or cold frame for winter. The fleshy, strap-shaped leaves emerge in late spring, the flower spikes in late July or August, and the whole display lasts well into autumn as the spent flowers develop into seed capsules that are almost as decorative as the flowers themselves.

I grow mine in a terracotta pot at the base of a south-facing wall, grouped with agapanthus and nerines — a little colony of South African bulbs enjoying the warmest spot in the garden. When visitors spot the pineapple flower spikes, the conversation always starts the same way: 'Is that real?' It always is. Nature is stranger than any design.