New Releases from The Tortured Agave Department

It’s always exciting for us when we finally are able to build up enough stock of a new agave we’ve selected, so we can finally publicly share. Since some agaves never offset naturally, they must first spend years confined to our 50 Shades of Gray torture bench, where we perform unthinkable deeds to force them to decide that vegetatively procreating is in their best interest. Here, in our X-rated greenhouse, they are tortured by being sliced, diced, drilled, and even beheaded, all in the name of propagation science. From the time we first decide that a new agave is worth sharing, it may take between 8 and 20 years to build up adequate stock, so the process is quite “taylored”, but also far from being swift.

Below is our secret torture bench, which we keep out of public view for obvious reasons.

We hope you enjoy the results of our propagation fetish, which will grace the upcoming new Plant Delights catalog. In addition to many returning favorites, the century plants below are new for 2026. The on-line catalog will drop the same day as everything else, from acorns (NC), to apples (New York), possoms (Georgia), pinecones (Arizona), doughnuts (Maryland), potatoes (Idaho), anchors (Florida), cheese (Wisconsin), and of course, a moonpie (Alabama).

We’ll start with Agave gentryi ‘Uptight’, which is our sport of a Zac Hill collection in Northern Mexico. We have typically not been successful overwintering Agave gentryi in the garden, but this selection has thrived in our winter temperatures since 2018. In the garden, it’s very rare for it to produce an offset, which are clustered tightly at the base of the mom. We’d rate this as Zone 7b/8a-10a.

Agave gentryi ‘Uptight’

Agave ‘Craziness’ is an unstable sport, we found on our garden plant of Agave ‘Crazy Horse’ in 2008. It’s taken us 18 years to have enough to finally share. When the streaked pattern stabilizes into a creamy center, it becomes Agave ‘Bareback Rider’. Unlike deciduous hostas, which often stabilize after going dormant, such is not the case with evergreen agaves, so streaked forms may remain streaked for decades. Because the cream tissue doesn’t produce as much sugars, as the green tissue, this sport isn’t as winter hardy as the Zone 7b, Agave ‘Crazy Horse’. It does however, make one fine container specimen.

Agave parryi ssp. truncata ‘Hardy Boyz’ is an amazingly winter hardy form of what is typically a non-hardy subspecies of the widespread Agave parryi. We now have two solidly hardy forms in the garden, the sparsely-offsetting Agave parryi ‘Gentry’s Blue’, and this better-offsetting form that we named Agave ‘Hardy Boyz’. We acquired this form in 2008, from plantsman Hans Hansen, who acquired it from the late Arizona plantsman, George Hull. It’s also taken us 18 years to build up enough stock to share. Hardiness Zone 7b-10b.

Agave x flexiferox ‘Megaladon’ was selected from our 2014 cross of Agave flexispina and Agave x pseudoferox ‘Belleville’. Agave ‘Megaladon’ matures at 3′ tall x 5′ wide, and is a sparse offsetter. We find the arrangement of teeth quite superb, and worthy of its dinosaur namesake.

Agave ‘Supersize’ is from our 2014 cross of Agave x protamericana x Agave x pseudoferox ‘Bellville’. Our goal with this cross was to see how large of a winter hardy agave we could produce. In our trials, we found a surprising lack of good winter hardiness, despite both parents being reliable. There was only one standout from ten plants in our field trials, and that became Agave ‘Supersize’. This selection, which has matured at 6′ tall x 9′ wide, produces a good crop of offsets, so we were able to have enough to share in only 12 years.

Agave lophantha ‘Candida’ is a fascinating sport we discovered in 2014, as a small streak on one of our nursery pots of Agave lophantha. After a few years, we were able to stabilize it into a lovely cream edge. For us, this produces very sparse offsets. Hardiness is probably Zone 9a-10b.

Agave lophantha ‘Candida’

We are extremely excited about finally being able to share Agave x loferox ‘Sunshine Superman’, since it has sailed through 11 degrees F. in our in-ground trials, which is almost unheard of, for a gold-edge leaf century plant. This 2013 cross between Agave lophantha and Agave x pseudoferox started as a seedling with a single leaf streak. It took us years to stabilize it into a stable edge, so that propagation could begin.

Agave x loferox ‘Sunshine Superman’

Agave parryi ssp. truncata ‘Monet Moment’ is a plant we received in 2008 from plantsman Hans Hansen, before he joined Walters Gardens. That it’s taken us 18 years to have enough to share is a testament to how painfully slow this grows. Because of this, it makes a great container specimen that will be very slow to outgrow the original pot. Hardiness is Zone 9a-10b

Agave parryi ssp. truncata ‘Monet Moment’

Agave x leopoldii ‘Spike’ is a much more compact sport than our previous introduction, Agave x leopoldii ‘Hammer Time’. The fine texture and smaller size makes it a great container specimen. This is a hybrid of Agave filifera x Agave schidigera. Hardiness is Zone 9a-10b

Agave x leopoldii ‘Spike’

Agave x nigra ‘Sun Shark’ is a sport of Agave ‘Sharkskin Shoes’ that we found in 2014. Because it’s very slow to produce any offsets, this one has also taken us 12 years to have enough to share. Hardiness is Zone 9a-10b

Agave x nigra ‘Sun Shark’