The fourth of our eight century plants with flower spikes is now open. This is a 10-year old specimen of Agave ocahui…one of the agaves with unbranched flower spikes. We’re enjoying the amazing flowers, while also trying to make crosses with other species to create interesting new hybrids…wish us luck! Since Agave ocahui doesn’t offset, the plant will die after flowering, so we’ll need to plant a replacement.
dDd you protect the Ocahu? Everything I read says zone 8b. I had one in 7b/8a area in upstate SC and it was killed at 4 degrees during the vortex years.
No, we did not protect our Agave ocahui, but over the years, we planted out 21 different clones. One lived long enough to flower, one is still alive (planted in 2018), and 20 died during the winter. This shows there is a need for a hardy clonal selection as the winter hardiness varies tremendously from seed.