Monday, June 3, 2019

Another Oregon agave is blooming!

January of 2012 I welcomed you to "my" Mediterranean Villa. With that blog post I kicked off a long term relationship with this garden and it's agaves. Most recently I visited to help the new owners ID some plants, and harvest agave pups from plants that were, themselves, pups of the biggest agave of them all.

So it is exciting and yet bittersweet to share the fact this huge—by Pacific Northwest standards—agave is sending up a bloom spike, the beautiful end to an awe-inspiring plant.

I do periodically drive by this garden, just to see how things are looking. I guess I hadn't been by in awhile, because I was surprised to get a text from the homeowner saying "looks like the big agave is going to bloom." I was there within a couple of days to see it for myself.

While it will be sad to see it go, I am thrilled to be able to check on it daily weekly, watching its progression. Unlike the blooming agave I discovered in Dundee, south of town, which I may not make it back to see before it expires.

Thankfully the garden won't be agave-less, there are still several beauties here.

And maybe there will be a few hundred bulbils on the bloom stalk? I have no idea if Agave salmiana (what Greg Starr thought the agave might be when he saw photos) produces bulbils or not.

Speaking of that blooming agave in Dundee here are the latest update photos I've received from my friend Denise. This one was taken on May 25th.

Ditto here, and she estimates its height at six feet or more.

These next three photos are from yesterday, June 2nd. She says it now appears to be over 9 feet tall...

It's kinda cool how good the plant still looks. No yellow leaves or other signs of it beginning its demise. Oh and didn't Denise do a nice job with the ray of sunshine looking all biblical? Can't you just hear the angels singing?

Since I'm doing updates, one more! Andrew and I recently took a stroll by the Lizardland guerilla garden and it's really looking great. London has worked in a lot of new plants.

Opuntia and agave (at nearly dead center)...

Join with naturally occurring rock art...

And driftwood...

To create the perfect home for these friendly guys.

I'd told Andrew there were lizards and was thrilled a few came out to great us.

Check out those scales!

Wouldn't you be happy to hang out here if you were a lizard?

Beautiful planting...

I wonder what people who discover this garden by surprise think?

Pretty cool...

Weather Diary, June 2: Hi 80, Low 53/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

14 comments:

  1. It looks like all the blooming agaves have a skirt of off-springs to take there place once they are gone. Pretty good arrangement, I'd say.

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  2. That guerrilla garden is quite something. Love the lichens!

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  3. A blooming agave is a bittersweet event. I can't imagine what a job it'll be to take down that huge specimen once it's bloomed out. I'm still watching the bloom stalks of my 2 Agave desmettiana 'Variegata' for signs of bulbils. The flowers are gone and there are bud-like bumps on the still intact stalks but I haven't been able to confirm that these agaves form bulbils. If they do, I hope it happens before the stalks fall into the street and I'm forced to remove them.

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    1. From the angle I was able to see it, the big agave looked like it was still standing straight. I hope it doesn't end up leaning out over the stair steps. As for your Agave desmettiana I think Hoov had bulbils develop on hers.

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  4. Hope this isn't a silly question...but if you were to cut off a flower stalk before it grew tall and flowered, would the agave still die? I'm curious, as I don't know desert plants at all.

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    1. Not a silly question at all, but no. Once the plant decides it's time all the energy goes into flowering and there's no stopping it. The process starts within the plant long before we can see it is happening.

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  5. This is stunning - where is it located?

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    1. Email me Phillip and I'll be happy to share. I don't feel like it would be right to put their address up on the internet.

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  6. Such a beautiful front garden. The house, the cypress, the palms, all of it. Gotta go look back at the 2012 post.

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    1. Check this one out too, I got a tour from the "then" owners:
      http://www.thedangergarden.com/2012/03/welcome-back-to-my-mediterranean-villa.html

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  7. It's always bittersweet to see an agave bloom and the one at your villa is especially so as you have such a history with it. Lizzardland is looking splendid!

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    1. I wonder how long it will be before we have an agave bloom?

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