I remember first seeing on-line images of Agave bracteosa ‘Monaco Princess’ over two decades ago, and it was lust at first sight. Tracking down my new found target of desire proved much more difficult than I could have ever imagined. After some deep on-line dives, I was able to determine that the plant was discovered as a sport at The Jardin Exotique de Monaco, who had it on display as Agave bracteosa ‘Mediopicta Alba’…an invalid cultivar name. After corresponding with the garden director, Jean-Marie Solichon, who was willing to share, we simply couldn’t figure out how to get a phytosanitary certificate required for shipping to the US. He mentioned that has was working with Succulenta Nursery in Holland to propagate it, which seemed like an easier trail to follow. I contacted the amazing Cok Grootscholten of Holland’s Succulenta Nursery, who followed up with the bottom image of his plant, that he’d just removed its head to promote propagation.
Finally, in 2006, I made my way to Holland to visit Cok, and hopefully pick up my holy grail agave. While I loved my visit, I was disappointed to find that he’d already sold all of his spare offsets. I should mention that this is one of the most lusted after agaves in existence. Due to the slow growth rate of this clone, it would be another three years before he’d have an extra one to sell. In the meantime, an impatient European collector visited The Jardin Exotique de Monaco and removed most of the offsets, which soon began showing up on on-line auction sites for several thousand dollars each. Fast forward to 2009, I had friends who were visiting Cok, who agreed to purchase and pick up an offset for me, so my decade journey of horticultural lust was finally quenched. In 2018, we christened it with an official cultivar name, Agave bracteosa ‘Monaco Princess’ Our original plant below is now fifteen years old. If this isn’t the slowest growing agave I’ve ever seen, it’s a close second. It’s our hope to be able to share this one day, but that’s only going to happen if I live a very long life.
As we mentioned in an earlier blog, all Agave bracteosa has now been moved to the new genus, Paleoagave.
We sadly lost Cok in fall 2023 at age 79, after a battle with cancer.
