Monday, December 30, 2019

Agave abuse in Pasadena, California

I had several alternative titles for this post:
Gardening with straight lines
Gardening within the box
Agave, cornered
Stand back!

And on, and on—but really it all comes down to agave abuse. Someone planted a couple Agave americana 'Variegata' in a spot they—and their offspring—would easily outgrow. Then they failed to do any maintenance other than chop the hell out of the poor plants.

I briefly considered attempting to count how many agaves there are in this tangle, but quickly gave up.

I wonder what they used to cut the leaves with such straight edges?

They even cut off the center of this one...

The crime took place just around the corner from a bookstore Andrew visited during our holiday trip to Southern California. I was parking to pick him up when I spotted the abuse. I should have got an overall shot but it was pouring down rain, so I didn't. Instead here's a Google maps image from August of 2014. Things looked quite a bit different back then.

Here's what the agave on the right (in the photo above) looks like now.

If I were to anthropomorphize the scene I'd say the big agave looks like a mama trying to protect her babies from the evil person with the blade. Yikes. That's not a happy thought.

There lots more photos to come from this trip to SoCal, happy ones!

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Weather Diary, Dec 29: Hi 48, Low 40/ Precip trace

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

14 comments:

  1. Yikes! I wonder how long it's going to take before someone decides/realizes that the situation isn't going to improve with repeated hack jobs? As it looks like a commercial office of some kind, I suppose it could continue until the tenant turns over.

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    1. Seriously, that's what I thought. It wouldn't be that hard to get in there and rip them all out and replant with something more suitable.

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  2. Ugh, how ugly! I would love to get in there with a shovel and liberate them, poor things. A little love and care in some nice free-draining soil in a pot, even up here in cold, rainy Washington, has to be better than that. Too bad they wouldn't get as big as that big Mama in your last photo. She is a beauty and does look like she's protecting her babies.

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    1. Can you imagine having to walk by this travesty every day on your way into work?

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  3. Poor thing, definitely not the plant for that spot. Echeverias perhaps would have been better.

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  4. And you didn't report the abuse to the appropriate authorities? Though who are the appropriate authorities? Perhaps this situation calls for a citizen's arrest.

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    1. There should be a number you can call...

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  5. Sadly I've seen a lot of this too - where the "mow and blow" guys w/a lack of plant knowledge treat agave, aloe etc as a box hedge. Or in this case maybe it was the property owner(?)

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    1. I can't imagine anyone thinks this looks good.

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  6. Grrrrrrr. I've seen this a lot. Almost always involving Agave americana. Not every plant people give you is a good thing! Do your homework!

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    1. Or at least once your eyes tell you something, listen to them!

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