Victor Victoria – Sex in Reverse

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, to impregnate the flowers on Queen Victoria’s century plant, Although the two species aren’t closely related within the genus, we managed to get a tiny number of seed, despite repeating the cross for several days. Due to the expected low viability from such a wide cross, our efforts were rewarded with only two viable seedlings. Unbeknownst to us at the time, the same cross had been made just prior, by California agave breeder, Jeremy Spath. I was able to visit Jeremy a few years later, and see his offspring, when it was still young.

Eight years later, both our, and Jeremy’s hybrids have matured. While our plant is still intact, Jeremy’s plant has already been sliced and diced for propagation purposes. Below are both of our hybrids, using Agave victoriae-regine as the maternal parent. Both our plant (Agave ‘Prince of Whales’) and Jeremy’s plant (Agave ‘Sho-Time’) of Agave x victorifolia (unpublished) are superficially similar, non-offsetting hybrids, but we feel his hybrid has better leaf markings. Since his plant made it into the market first, we look forward to having his clone to share in our upcoming 2026 spring Plant Delights catalog in January. This made our decision about whether to chop our plant or leave it for breeding purposes much easier. We anticipate flowering within the next few years, and are already dreaming about what the offspring might look, if we’re lucky enough for it to set viable seed.

In 2021, we were able to make the reverse cross, this time, using Agave ovatifolia as the maternal parent, with saved pollen from Agave victoriae-reginae. This time, we managed to germinate a whopping seven seedlings. The offspring from this cross looks quite different from our 2016 reverse cross, with more characteristics of Agave ovatifolia, but much smaller, and with more pointed leaves. These plants are still young, but we look forward to their continued development.