Aeonium atropurpureum 'Schwartzkopf'

Also known as "Black Rose" or "Black Tree" this plant is native to the Canary Islands, Cape Verde Isles and Morocco. I'd had it for well over three years and it sat in its pot and grew 3-4" each year - didn't bloom or do anything interesting, but was merely content to sit in the back row of my succulent garden on the back patio and look benign and relatively pretty.

Then, one day, about five months ago, I noticed the stalk was suddenly many inches longer and a small protrusion was poking its way out of the center of the rosette, and starting to look like a tiny radar dish:


Within a week it had gotten larger and started sporting little nodules:


Which looked like this, up close:


And like this, head on:


The stalk continued to grow until it was over three feet long and the head was beginning to bow under the weight, when one day in late February, it looked like this:


It continued to offer this beautiful display for almost six weeks, until it finally started to fade a few days ago. I'm not a very conscientious gardener, but I have the greatest admiration for nature, and how She manages to work her way around me and produce such wonderful exhibitions in spite of me!