A little shot

I mentioned at the start of the year that one of my resolutions was to grow more manfredas and mangaves. There are limited varieties of manfreda you will find in the UK and the only common mangave you find is mangave macho mocha, which is a lovely plant.  At this time of year it tends to be green but as the sun warms up purple spots form giving it a distinctive colour. If you control the water you can get an even better look, this one belongs to the agave nursery:

The variegated version of this plant is mangave espresso and has white edges to the leaves.  I was lucky enough to track one down last year and it is the plant all my friends are desperately watching hoping for pups. How does the saying go, a watched kettle never boils.  It seems that posh coffee makers are not so shy and I was thrilled to find this the other day:

As you may have noticed, I have a tendency to remove pups as soon as I find them and it took all my resolve to leave this one where it was.  I won't remove it until it's a bit bigger,  although there is one very anxious perspective owner waiting for news. Something tells me this little one is going to receive even more attention than its mum.