Agave x victosa ‘Starfish’ is one of our prize agaves, a very rare hybrid between Agave victoriae-reginae and Agave bracteosa, which we planted in 2004. Knowing that it was approaching flowering size, at which point, it would die, and since it has never offset, we chose to drill out the central core, to force it
Where there’s a Will, There is a Way Read More »
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
New Releases from The Tortured Agave Department Read More »
Back in 2016, we were fortunate to flower a plant of Agave victoriae-reginae in the garden. We were intrigued to see if we could create a hybrid with it, and the amazing Agave ovatifolia. Since we didn’t have Agave ovatifolia (pictured below) in flower that year, we used pollen we’d saved from a 2013 flowering,
Victor Victoria – Sex in Reverse Read More »
Although the title sounds like it, we’re not promoting a new Woody Allen flick. It seems that despite having 27 agaves in the garden flower this spring and summer, three more have taken leave of their proverbial senses, and started sending up flower spikes that won’t open until fall, including the top Agave x amourifolia
The Smell of Love and Death is in the Fall Air Read More »
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 To our surprise, we got a single viable seed, creating a tri-generic x Hansara (name unpublished), that we named H. ‘Queen
Recreating Frankenstein? Read More »
2025 sets a record as we welcomed 22 different century plants into flower. We’ve set up our ladders for the pollination ritual, where we hike to the top with pollen we forcefully extracted from potential suitors and do our best to impregnate the moms. Then, we wait and hope for viable seed. This is Agave
The End of the Century is Approaching Read More »
We’re preparing for another crazy year of century plant breeding, with fourteen agaves in spike so far. After flowering 34 clones over the last two years, we expected less this year, but now, that doesn’t appear to be the case. From the initial spike appearance to the first flowers opening is generally 6-7 weeks, so
Several years ago, one of our agave seedlings from a cross of Agave lophantha x Agave x pseudoferox, germinated with golden foliage. As it grew, it showed a seasonal color change from having green leaves in summer and fall, but brightening to gold in winter. Although, we’ve named this Agave x loferox ‘Sunbeam’, we’re still
Century of Sunbeams Read More »
In 2014, as part of our agave breeding program, we made a cross of two winter hardy century plants from Northern Mexico, Agave ocahui and Agave victoriae-reginae. By 2016, the seedlings from that cross were large enough to be planted outdoors. From our seedling offspring, we made ten initial selections, which represented the diversity of
Time to Slice and Dice an Artichoke? Read More »
One of our 2019 selected offspring from our cross of Agave ovatifolia and Agave x pseudoferox, and subsequently named Agave x ovox ‘Picture Perfect’ is looking lovely in the garden in January, as it shows off its amazing leaf banding and bud imprinting. This has only been in the ground for five years, so it’s
