These plants wait their whole lives to bloom once. It’s usually spectacular

Flowering annuals generally bloom nonstop before dying at the end of the year or season. Perennials return every year, providing either season-long color, a burst of blossoms followed by sporadic blooming or a limited show that can last as little as two weeks. And biennials flower only in their second year before calling it quits.

But there’s another group of plants called monocarpics that spend their whole lives growing in size only to provide a single, swan-song bloom before leaving us for the great compost pile in the sky.