Time for an agave update

It has been a while since there has been a post on the agaves planted in the main rockery, especially after all the damage back in Spring 2015. It is obvious some have grown but not so in others.

Starting with the agave filiferas, the normal form I would guess has grown, it looks much bigger now, so the March 2014:

And August 2016

Probably only a little bigger, but a lot fuller.

The form with no white markings: March 2015

August 2016

Not sure I can tell the difference in that one at all.  It definitely seems to be slower than the standard form and not sure that the lack of white markings on the leaves really add anything.

The largest agave montana: June 2014

August 2016

The middle sized one has been moved to the front garden, so onto the smallest agave montana: March 2014

August 2016:

These have grown a lot, a shame the angle is different. Not really a surprise as they love being in the ground. They seem to be one of the agaves that stops growing for me when it gets warm (yes even in the UK).

Next up probably my favourite form of parryi, agave parryi HK1684. March 2014

 Then August 2016

Another one that has really grown, although not so obvious from the photo.  I'm not a big fan of the narrow leaf forms, and this one not only has wide leaves, but the spines are a really good colour.  It is now a proper artichoke shape.

The agave ovatifolia has been one of the quickest growers. There is no doubt that this is one of the best agaves for the UK, even from a small size it seems to have a lot of cold and wet tolerance. March 2014.

It had to be moved at the start of this summer, which has set it back a bit, but still impressive growth.

A second much larger plant has been added elsewhere in the rockery as well.

There are a few other other agaves in there as well, I don't seem to have multiple photos for these.

Agave bracteosa

Agave parasana

 

Agave xNigra

Finally the scary one, no photos needed to tell if this has grown, but as I have them here is teh agave salmiana var ferox in 2015:

and then in August 2016

What is more worrying is the new pup, This was not there last year, so that is one years growth and it is already over 30cm across and almost as big as the the agave gentryi which has been in the ground since  2014.

Having been to a garden a few days ago with one of these, I have seen what they can become.  More on that once I have checked the owner is happy for me to write a post on his garden.

I think come spring next year the pup will be dug up and moved to take over somewhere else!

While we're on the subject of offsets

Time for a quick echeveria 'Compton Carousel' update. After the last post on the tricks I use, which can be found here, they have had the summer to grow and have filled the pots nicely.

In the main pot I did consider cutting off the two largest offsets, but decided on leaving them for this year. Amazingly that little pure white offset is still going strong, it must be feeding off the other plants.

In the middle size pot the offsets have filled out the middle nicely.

As the four large plants in this pot have good root systems already I cut two off to give the offsets more space.

These have been given to friends, who seemed quite pleased by their deliveries.

The pot is a bit lopsided, but they don't do as well cut off from the mother plants as most succulents, so I tend not to cut them off until I have something to do with them.

Lots of small offsets now have space to grow out and fill the space. No doubt the last two larger plants will go a some point.

Time to even things up.

This haworthia attenuata variegata was one of last plants I got from my friend Paul before he died. His pot was rammed full of plants, all variegated to some degree. It was quite a sight. I was desperate for a bit to start my own pot, but he was understandably reluctant to spoil the look of his pot. We spent a while carefully turning it to see if any of the smaller offsets would come off and one did. Not the best, and only half variegated, but a start.

A few years later and my pot is full of plants, only most are not variegated. I forgot to take a picture of the pot before splitting them, but here is the mother now:

Being lopsided the type of pup depends on where it comes of the parent plant. In this case over half the pot was not variegated.

Then there were those that were exact copies of mum.

I toyed with the idea of replanting any with variegation, then noticed the plant I have been waiting for: a fully variegated pup.

Time to start again with this plant.  Thankfully it is one of the faster haworthia, so the pot should fill up in a couple of years.   Hopefully this time every plant will be variegated, giving me the pot I have wanted since first seeing Pauls.

What happened to summer

Is it really September already? It has been busy here, but I have been been storing up posts so hopefully lots to follow.

In the mean time, has anyone else noticed that every time you go out into the garden to do some tidying or re-potting you just seem to end up with even more plants!

I am trying to cut down on the number of duplicates, so this lot will be left bare root and given away.  As lots of people have been commenting my the new front garden, maybe I'll leave them out there with a sign letting people know they are free to a good home.