Wednesday 8 July 2015

Starting the annual pup cull.

Part of the re-potting process is removing offsets.  I used to keep every single one and pot them up for swaps, but noticed they took up space and often suffered if they were not moved on.  Now if the plant is nothing unusual I just take off very young pups (that way I don't feel so bad), as part of the re-potting process.  Today it was the turn of some of the agaves.

First up the un-identified agave filifera hybrid. There is still no formal id on this one, other than it came from a batch of a. filifera seeds.  It's a good solid plant.


The wierd thing about this plant, is that it doesn't seem to actually grow.  It gets new leaves, and old ones die, but it stays the same size. No offsets on this one, it never does, but it always needs a good clean up of the dead leaves. I have tried a slightly bigger pot this year in the hope of maybe getting some growth.

From the non-offsetter, to one of the biggest, agave stricta nana.  It was bought about 3 years ago at a local plant fair.  There was a group of them hidden away on one of the stall, all much bigger than you usually see in the UK.


This is a pupping machine, it's natural habit is to clump. Keeping it as a solitary plant is a full time job.  Thankfully it is not diffiuclt to remove offsets, a simple twist or pull on each one separates it form the mother.  I did save one, which has gone in one of my "victorian" pots.


Funnily enough the little pots came for the same fair as the nana did. A seller this year has a few of them, supposedly all victorian, and I have since seen them sold like that in another nursery, so maybe it's true. Either way they are cute little pots.  I have 5 of them and am playing with the idea of selecting my favourite plants for a series of miniatures.

There are two many plants to show each one, but the final one worth a spot is the manfreda maculosa x agave obscura.  This was from my friend before he died and I have been growing both forms to see how they turn out.  This more triangualar form is doing well.


The spots really come out in the sun.


It seems to offset freely, so took off quite a few and actually saved some of these.


These will make a few people very happy, there has been a waiting list for them so they are all off to good homes. You know who you are.

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