Tuesday, July 10, 2012

New Agave

Sometimes I wonder how the big box stores stock their plants. A few weekends ago, I found a pretty agave stuffed in the back of the bottom shelf (again). It was the last one, and looked pretty sad (no water, no light will do that to a plant), so it came home with me, plus a 50% off discount.

I decided to add it to the frontyard garden, which mostly counts on grasses and ice plants, and needs some spiny accents. In the ground it went:
new Agave 5/5/2012
It was labeled as Agave species, which is not very helpful. It has no teeth, and at this point it is hard to tell whether the brown tips at the end of the leaves are damage or spines. I think its either A. attenuata, A. bracteosa or A. desmettiana. A few weeks later, its looking a little better:
Agave 5/27/2012
 The new leaves that are growing in the center also have brown spines, and all the leaves are now growing more upright. The color is definitely a dusty blue-green, which makes me think it's A. desmettiana. I like the way it looks with the Elijah Blue (Fesctuca glauca 'Elijah Blue') in the background. The colors are very similiar, but the textures are almost opposite. We'll see if it starts producing any offsets. Since A. desmettiana isn't technically hardy in zone 11, I may try to remove any offsets that show up and overwinter them inside. Just in case...

4 comments:

  1. Cool find! I hope it turns out to be hardy.

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  2. Yay for new Agaves! It indeed may be A. desmettiana, it's definitely not A. attenuata, A. bracteosa.

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    1. Someone suggested it might be Fucraea foetida, instead of an Agave. But that would take the big box stores mis-labeling of plants to a new level! I guess I'll find out in a few years, if it lives, depending on how big it gets. :) Thanks for your comment!

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