An agave follow-up (whatever happened to?)

Last December I adopted a pair of agaves that had been languishing on a shelf without sunlight, soil, or water for over three years (a pandemic plant abandonment). This is what they looked like when I brought them home and first wrote about them, and yes, that basket is made of their roots.

At first I'd hoped to retain the root basket they'd been living off of, but it became obvious I could either save the plants or the "basket" not both.

Here's a shot of the tiny healthy roots that were pushing out of the base when I trimmed away all of the dead ones, and before I potted them up.

And here's what they looked like as they went to spend winter in the basement. They actually took a turn after this and looked even worse for a while.

But come early May, when they migrated outdoors, they were beginning to look like they were going to make it. The real test came in June when I pulled them out of their plastic pots to plant them in something patio-worthy. look at those new roots!

And fresh green leaves...

Here they are on the patio, pretty amazing recovery don't you think? How many other plants could hunker down and stay barely alive for three years with no inputs, and then make a recovery to look this good?

So you might be wondering, what agave species are they? I know I was. In the original post I mentioned Agave 'Blue Glow' and 'Burnt Burgundy' as possibilities, but it's obvious neither of those are right. After spending a little time looking for the answer on my own I decided to consult the human agave encyclopedia, my friend Gerhard. We back and forthed a few times and came up with, and eliminated several possibilities. In the end it was narrowed down to Agave chazaroi, not because either one of us is certain, but because it's the only one that isn't a sure no. Hopefully they'll soon outgrow the single pot I've got them both in, but for now it's nice to see them thriving again together (oh and yes, there is actually a third, one of them has a small pup).

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