One century plant that had long frustrated us was the exquisite Agave parryi ssp. truncata. This southern form of the species is hugely popular in California and Arizona, where temperatures are milder, but it never would overwinter for us here in Zone 7b/8a. In 2010 we planted a form from Mountain States Nursery in Arizona,
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Our 2023 introduction, Agave lophantha ‘Goldfinger’ is unique in that the tips of the foliage turn bright gold in cold weather. What’s also unique is that when it flowers, which it’s doing now for the second time, the flower buds are also yellow, instead of the typical green for all other agaves. The golden foliage
Looking great in the garden after a low of 15F is our introduction, Agave ovatifolia ‘Cameo’. This variegated century plants is one we discovered as a sport on Agave ‘Vanzie’. The blue leaves are edged with a wide muted green border. Despite the variegation, it has shown no loss in winter hardiness from the typical
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
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One of the most popular garden specimen century plants has long been Agave parryi subspecies truncata. Due to their distribution in the Southwest US and Mexico, the hardiness of the various populations varies tremendously. These small (relatively speaking) century plants are mass-market landscape staples in warm temperate and frost-free parts of the desert southwest. Try
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In 2007, we released an amazing silver blue, winter hardy form of Agave x protamericana, named A. ‘Silver Surfer’. Unfortunately, the tissue culture lab that was producing it for us closed, and supplies over the last decade have been virtually non-existent. We’ve reverted by to our old, less efficient method of using offsets, which are
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One of our more interesting new century plants is Agave ovatifolia ‘Glowing Angel’. This exceptional plant originated here, as a sport from Agave ‘Awakening Angel’, but without the blue edge. In winter, the foliage turns blue, but in early spring, the plant glows, with the intensity of the color radiating out from the center, which
One of our favorite clones of the North American native, Agave x protamericana is Agave ‘Funky Toes’. Below is our clump in mid-February, looking no worse for wear after a low of 14 degrees F. This is a splendid introduction from the former Yucca Do Nursery, that we’ve grown since 2004, and is a natural
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Most years in fall, we sell off several of our large potted specimen century plants to make room in our overwintering greenhouse. 2024 was no different, but as is usually the case, all of the plants don’t sell. One that didn’t move was our large pot of Agave asperrima ‘Grand Duke’, so we decided to
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Looking lovely this week in the garden is our clump of Agave x protamericana ‘Silver Surfer’. This 2007 Plant Delights/JLBG introduction is our winter hardy (Zone 7b) selection from seedlings of a 1992 Yucca Do seed collecting expedition (YD 45-83) at 5,200′ in Palmillo, Tamaulipas, Mexico, where Agave americana ssp. protamericana intergrades with Agave asperrima.
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