Just how many agaves are there in the danger garden? (subtitled happy birthday to my brother)

Agave ‘Cornelius’

Today is my younger brother Darin’s birthday, his 40th birthday actually.

Agave ‘Burnt Burgundy’

Since I don’t have kids this is probably the closest I’ll feel to that “my kid is turning 40, I am old” feeling that I hear parents get, after all I’m old enough to remember when he came home from the hospital (what? You’re thinking that makes me really OLD right? We’ll some 1 yr olds have great memories!...actually when my youngest brother Ryan turns 40 in a couple of years then I will really be old, damn!).

Agave americana

Darin lives in Phoenix, AZ. Just the other day I was setting out on the patio, in the sun, thinking about his 30th birthday, we went on a field trip to Tucson, AZ, and how much I miss him (thankfully we are planning to visit him and his family this fall). Then I started thinking about all the agaves he lost last winter in their deep freeze, and about all pups he’s sent me over the last couple of years. Of course that got me to thinking about just how many agaves I have! I wonder if I have 40? Enough to wish him a happy birthday with agaves?

Agave americana medio-picta 'Alba'

So in honor of Darin’s 40th birthday (Happy Birthday Bro!) here are 40 pictures of my agaves, and guess what this isn’t all of them. Yes I have more than 40 agaves. Isn’t that crazy?

Agave americana 'Opal'

Agave americana 'Variegata' and unknown (on the left)

Agave americana 'Variegata'

Agave americana

Agave attenuata 'Ray of Light'

Agave attenuata

Agave bovicornuta

Agave bracteosa

Agave bracteosa

Agave bracteosa

Agave cupreata dwarf cowthorn

Agave desmettiana variegata

Agave filifera

Agave funkiana 'Blue Haze'

Agave geminiflora

Agave Montana

Agave neomexicana

Agave ocahui x attenuata blue

Agave ovatifolia Agave parryi

Agave ovatifolia

Agave parryi 'Cream Spike'

Agave parryi 'JC Raulston'

Agave parryi truncata

Agave parryi truncata

Agave parryi var. parryi

Agave titanota

Agave victoriae-reginae

Agave gypsophila 'Curly'

Agave lophantha 'Quadricolor'

Agave 'Mr Ripple'

Agave Parrasana

Agave Parrasana

Agave potatorum

Agave Shira ito no Ohi

Unknown Agave from Darin, this one has the longest spike of any in my garden

Another unknown Agave from Darin, with lots of pups!

One of these things is not like the others

For some reason that title insisted on being used for this post, it’s not quite right but the best I could do. My mind was stuck on those word or picture puzzles where you are given a list of things and you pick out the one that doesn’t belong. I started thinking about them when I saw this Acacia dealbata.
See the two different leaves? They are on the same plant! Of course there are several plants that have different juvenile leaves than their adult version. This must be one of them? Next up I saw this tree when out on a dog walk. I couldn’t get really close enough to get a good photograph because behind that chain link fence were a couple of very angry dogs. Hopefully you can make out how it goes from a smooth very pyramidal shape to crazy willy-nilly branches jutting out at the top. It’s like one tree is set on top of another. The last entry in this little collection is in my own garden. These leaves are growing out of the stump of a “dead” Cordyline (knocked back by winter, 3 years in a row). Last year the Cordy resprouted, this year I have these. Definitely not Cordyline leaves (one of these things is not like the others).

Overwintering follow-up report

Before I get completely caught up in summer (fingers crossed) I should do a follow up on my overwintering experiments. This was the first year I tried to overwinter Ensete maurelii (actually that’s not true…there was the year I stuck one in our unheated detached garage, but that was a complete failure). So this is the first year I did it right…

Last fall I dug up the two plants I had in the ground, cut back their leaves and wrapped them up in newspaper (loosely based on the instructions of Joseph at Greensparrow Gardens). Then I forgot about them. Here is what they looked like in early April when I unwrapped them. Signs of life! Here they are after I potted them up; the odd angle comes from the fact that after wrapping they were tossed into a metal basket which bent them a bit. Here is one of them a couple of days ago (on the right), joined by another Ensete which was overwintered in the small container it had been growing in. It was small enough that I hauled it to the basement and let it spend the winter there. It was down to one healthy leaf by the time it went outside but hey, at least it was alive! I also attempted to overwinter the Colocasia and Alocasia I had in containers, pulling them into the basement and keeping them wet with a little light. They all lived, but surprisingly the Alocasia thrived, I think it looks better now than ever before! The rest of them are slowly responding as the temperatures warm. I’ll do this again next year as it beats buying replacements. Finally in case I haven’t officially reported on the success of the shade pavilion all wrapped and acting as a greenhouse, it was hugely successful. We used a small space heater on the nights the temperature dipped dangerously low. Outside were nights in the mid teens but inside it only briefly dipped below freezing. Not bad! Everything thrived and the only near death was from a plant I forgot to water. That’s the problem with growing so many succulents; you forget other plants need a little more water!

Oh and the best part…the shade pavilion is back to being just that. Memories of its greenhouse days are already starting to fade as the long days of summer stretch out ahead…

A good year for the lavender...

I’ve never been one to swoon over lavender, but this year appears to be a very good one for the “rabbit ears”… Of course the bees love it too, they were buzzing and humming all around as I took these pictures. Must have been camera shy though as I can only spot one in the third picture above…