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 in the world. Many of these represent our own breeding or selection efforts, with some the culmination of well over a decade of evaluation, followed by propagation. Here are a few from the new catalog that went live January 1.
Agave titanota ‘Dusty Roads’ first caught my eye as a tiny seedling in the midst of thousands, on a 2005 visit to Mountain States Nursery in Arizona. Even as a tiny plant, we felt it would grow into something special. After years of growing, it proved us correct. Next, once evaluation and photography was complete, it was time for propagation, which we do by drilling out the center of the plant. A year later, we had eight plants, which took a year to grow out to a size large enough to core again. A year later, we had 64 plants, and were well on our way.
That’s when a vendor in California shared the dreaded agave mites with us. At the time, there was no treatment for these mites, which bury deep into the core of the agave, ruining its appearance. That resulted in us having to dump over $1 million dollars worth of agaves in the trash, including all of these. We kept back one plant in the hopes that one day, we’d find a way to kill the mites, which we finally did a few years later. After cleaning up our last plant, we spent the next few years growing it back up to size, so we could start the cutting process once again. Eight years later, or 20 years after our initial discovery, we finally have enough to share for the first time under the name Agave titanota ‘Dusty Roads’. This is a container plant unless you live in a frost-free climate.
Agave x victoferox ‘Upstanding’ is one of our winter hardy (Zone 7b) hybrids that we can share for the first time this year. This is our selected offspring from a 2014 cross we made of Agave victoriae-reginae and Agave x pseudoferox. This represents a very large century plant crossed on to a small species. As expected, the size is intermediate between both parents. In the garden, this original plant has only produced three offsets, so we had to intervene in order to ever have enough to share.
Mangave ‘Golden Friendship’ is a new 2025 introduction in limited quantities, exclusively from Plant Delights. This stunning selection is from a cross by our friend, Hans Hansen.
Mangave ‘Break of Dawn’ is another PDN exclusive from Hans’s work. This represents a sport of his earlier release, Mangave ‘Desert Dawn’. The quantities of these are very limited.
