AN Abingdon couple have been sharing lockdown with a long-awaited visitor - their Furcraea Parmentieri plant, which will soon die.

The plant only flowers after 10 years and it has recently produced a huge flower stem.

Rosalie James, 79, and husband Rodney James, 80, live together in Abingdon and are parents to the Furcraea Parmentieri plant which needs a lot of care, but they feel it has been worth the wait.

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The plant will continue to grow and eventually bloom with white bell-shaped flowers.

Mrs James said: “My husband was given these little fur cones, a very long time ago by a lady who lived down the road and he planted three.

“We have been very carefully putting them in the green house every winter, but this year we didn’t and then suddenly I looked out one day and it had just got taller and taller.”

The stem of the plant is now almost six feet tall, but once the plant flowers it will soon die.