Here’s our latest bit of mangave related plant breeding craziness. In 2015, we (Zac Hill) used pollen from a Jon Lindstrom xPolifreda hybrid (Manfreda maculosa x Polianthes geminiflora) to pollinate a flowering Agave victoriae-reginae. To our surprise, we got a single viable seed, creating a tri-generic x Hansara (name unpublished), that we named H. ‘Queen Mum’. It went into the ground in 2019, and flowered for the first time in 2024.

We didn’t anticipate that a tri-generic hybrid could possibly set seed, but as the old saying goes, “nothing ventured, nothing gained”. We first tried to self the x Hansara, and nothing took. We next tried to use pollen from one of its parents, Agave victoriae-reginae, but again, no takers. With only a few flowers remaining, we used Agave ovatifolia pollen, and to our surprise, got incredible seed set. To relate this to animals, it would equate to crossing a human with a gorilla, and then a chimpanzee, and then mating the resulting creature back to another human. In other words, there is nothing about this that should have worked.

The resulting seedlings are now in 1 quart pots (see below), which will be planted outdoors in spring. The parents involved are: Agave ovatifolia, Agave victoriae-reginae, Manfreda maculosa, and Polianthes geminiflora. The influence of both agave parents and the manfreda are clearly visible, but we’ll only see the floral influence of the polianthes when they flower in a few years. We can only imagine what Frankenstein-like clumps await.