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 »
While we love our giant century plants for their garden value, we also treasure their smaller forms for container culture. Below are a few of our favorites, for those who may not have any garden space. As a general rule, most variegated forms are less winter hardy than their non-variegated counterparts, so unless you live
Containing A Century of Excitement Read More »
I snapped this photo of Agave geminiflora ‘Leaping Lizards’ last week, as we were bringing our tender, potted agaves in for the winter. When I gaze at this, I get the feeling that I’m either looking down on one of those three dimensional pinwheels, or an M.C. Escher drawing. The green form of this unusual
In 2024, I happened to check out one of the plant auction sites, and was shocked to see a listing for an edged form of Agave utahensis ssp. utahensis var. nevadensis. I had only seen one listed twice before, and each time, the price for a tiny, unrooted division topped $10,000 USD. Both times, the
Gambling with Liberty and Death Read More »
Agave desmetiana is a mysterious North American native century plant, hailing from south of the US border, toward the southern tip of Mexico. Experts still argue about exactly where, with some claiming its origin is Oaxaca, Yucatan, and Veracruz. Not only do we not know for sure where it’s from, but we don’t have concensus
Agave desmetiana – The elegant mystery century plant Read More »
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
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
Grand Duke Surprise Read More »
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
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It’s that time we look forward to each year…the on-line launch of the new Plant Delights catalog. 2025 makes our 39th year of a journey we could never have imagined would have lasted this long when we began. The 100+ new plants in this years catalog, include over 40 that are first time introductions anywhere
The Launch Window – A few Appetizers Read More »
In 2015, we were potting seedlings from our cross of two hardy century plants, Agave lophantha and Agave x pseudoferox (salmiana var. ferox of Hort.), when we found one with a tiny yellow streak on one leaf. Over the years, it grew larger until it was large enough to core, which we do to promote
