Saving Mangaves!

This weekend, some "emergency gardening" had to take place! These three pictures explain the problem...

there is supposed to be a Mangave Kaleidoscope here?

this one shows the problem - what eats only the core, and from below?

most heartbreaking - there used to be a mangave 'Moonglow' there!

I'd like to pretend the gophers are dead now (traps and poison), but the fact that they ate Moonglow, and because the stupid critters always come back ( i assume different ones, not like zombie-gophers), I decided to pull all the other mangave out of the planting beds and plant them up in pots. About half my mangave (i have quite a few) already are in pots, just in case they have to come in for winter, so i know it works.

So this afternoon, i dug up most of the remaining clumps, and potted them up:

four out of the ground, and two that were already in pots

 All of them together - good thing i had some extra containers!

From the top, and left to right, we have:

• Mangave Espresso (had been hiding under a bush, in the ground, hopefully it will appreciate the extra sun)
• Mangave Cappuccino (has been in a pot for a while, but needs a better spot/more care)
• A random agave that got rescued from the russian sage it was stuck under
• Mangave 'Freckles and Speckles' (had been in the ground)
• Mangave 'Cherry chocolate chip' (had been in the ground)
• Mangave 'pineapple express' (had been in ground, and has already survived being half eaten before) 
• Mangave 'Lavender Lady' (has been in that pot for a while, but hasn't been getting enough water)
• Mangave 'Whale Tail' (has been in that pot, but unhappy under the russian sage)
• Mangave 'Navajo Princess' (has been in that pot, and mostly happy, but i'd like it somewhere were i can see it...)

After they all got cleaned up/potted up, i had to find a spot to put them back. They look very nice here:

view from the patio

the blue + steel looks good

even with the brand name., very apropos for Veterans day too!

So i'll have to plan something like that next summer. An excuse to buy more pots & plants!

But for now, there is no irrigation there, and super full sun all day. Neither of which is good for mangaves coming out of shady hiding places/into a pot/etc, so all of them actually went back to where most of them were planted in the ground before. 

This is a spot where a yucca isn't doing very well (i'd like to blame it on the gophers also, but i think it's a sprinkler issue... too much water), so there's some extra room. The mangaves will stay here until i figure out what to do with them/make sure they are all alright. 

There are two more mangaves in the ground, but I don't want to move these...

mangave 'mission to mars'

mangave 'crazy cowlick'

But now i'm second guessing myself - what if they get eaten?!? Do I put these in pots too? They look so good in the ground. Most of the others were in places where they'll look just as good in pots as in the ground, unlike these two. Maybe pots that are buried in the ground will work? 

Also, I did buy another 'Kaleidoscope' (because it is so pretty), along with 3 other new ones: Iron Man, Coffee Jitters, and Desert Dragon. I think all of them will be going directly into pots, or whatever i figure out to do with the other 2...)

(btw - this whole exercise was helpful in 2 other ways:

1. by process of elimination, the mangave in the pot from the last post is 'Electric Cheetah' (the only that i've ordered, is not know to be dead, not in this post, and not one of the "other ones")
2. it shows how different all these mangaves are! which means i can happily continue to buy more, blissfully unaware of any "problems" i might have, like too many mangaves...)

And obviously, my "emergency" pails in comparison to all the fires that have been happening. We've been unaffected so far, but i hope everyone else is staying safe out there!