Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Operation Agave Rescue

Could you even imagine having too many Agave pups? I couldn’t, that would be kind of like having too much money, right?

The danger garden is the lucky recipient of another shipment of Agave pups (the first shipment was back in April), from my brother, Darin, in Arizona. That's his artwork on the box above, I wonder if the the postman was a little worrried? Darin dug and divided the offspring of his mature Agaves, and ended up with more than he could use. So I said YES! I will definitely rescue the homeless agaves! For those of you who recall my post about the Agave Snout Weevil, and how it is killing off his mature specimens, worry not! These little guys are all bug free. Don’t you just love the electrical tape? They look like little fashion victims on the pages of Vogue whose faces have been black-striped over to protect their identity. And the best part is even I now have too many and I’ve been able to give several away, spreading agave love around the Northwest! The pups I received back in April (below) are settling in nicely and really enjoying the heat.
This assortment (below) was planted over a couple of year’s time. Even though they are all about the same size now the oldest one (on the far left) only had 1½ leaves when it was planted. The newest one, on the far right, came from this recent shipment. My unscientific experiment (some in the ground, and some in containers), seems to be showing the ones in the containers are growing faster, they must be responding to the increased heat generated in the container?

6 comments:

  1. Can we ever have too many plants? Well maybe if they're marigolds. :) These agave are ultra-cool and I love your rock top dressing.

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  2. Love it that your family is all so agave-obsessed. OK, I'm in. Thanks! :)

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  3. I love agave pups!
    I had one send up a seed stalk last year, before it passed away - I planted over two hundred in small pots...it became a bit of an obsession! Watch out for those variegated Agave Americana, they get large, one in a pot is quite enough - check out my latest post to see how many pups a containered plant can churn out.
    Love these plants!
    ESP.

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  4. You're rich with agaves! Good to know they're slower growing in the ground, since I've been thinking about planting one of mine out. And Karen's in on it, going to give one a try? Nicely done. Another fan out there.

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  5. I got a good laugh from your fashion victim / electrical tape description.
    too funny !
    congrats on your new bounty.

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  6. Grace, thank you. I love the gravel mainly because it looks good but it also makes it easier to water with out splashing soil out of the pot!

    Karen, watch out...you might become agave obsessed!

    ESP, I had already seen your post on the Americana and was green with envy! I just don't think we get hot enough here in Portland during our summer months to make them that happy! I've had a huge (4.5 ft wing-span) Americana in a pot for a couple of years and it only has one small pup. You potted up hundreds huh? That is dedication!

    Megan, an Americana or a different type? How fun! I can't wait to follow it's progress.

    Thanks DD - if I can't be money-rich then agave-rich does nicely!

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