The planted agaves

After my potted post on some of the potted agaves (here) and having seen the agave report on the blog Piece of Eden (you can read it here) I thought it was time for one on the planted agaves in various rockeries.  I have tried to limit the number of varieties especially as they do not get protected over winter.

Agave Montana

There are two of these in the main rockery and two it the front.  The largest was one of my first planted agaves, it was one that was moved from the old garden.

The second had a bit of a tough start to the year, as it was covered by the aloe striatula. Back in the sun again, it seems not to have noticed.

The two in the front are much slower growing.  They don't get fed, or watered and don't get as much sun and it shows.

You can see the smaller one is very shiny green. It looks a little different to the rest and I wonder if it had a bit of Gentryi mixed in.  It was the reason I bought it, time will tell.

Agave filifera

The other plants that were dug up and moved from the last house are agave filifera. The largest one seems to have stopped getting bigger and now is just increasing in height.

The second plant you can see in the background, it is a little strange as it has no white marks on the leaves.

Neither of these have offset yet which is strange.  They grow at a good rate, and don't show any signs of root problems, just no pups. They also breeze through our winters.

Agave bracteosa

If agave filifera refuses to produce pups, this one doesn't stop.  The main plant is at the top of the main succulent rockery.

As the wall if often used as a seat, it is nice to have something there that doesn't stab when you sit down.

As it has offset the pups have moved around the garden and given away.  The largest is in the cycad rockery.

It doesn't get quite as much sun, so is slower than it's younger brother the other side of the garden. This one is much younger, but the psotion makes it a noticeably faster.

Agave ovatifolia

Again the largest is at the top of the main rockery, not such great positioning on the seat front.

It grows at an impressive rate and shrugs off the winters here. The second one in that rockery is seed grown.  I only kept a few seedlings and this was the best of the bunch.  It is very white in colour.

The third plant is in the front and is one of the named forms, agave ovatifolia 'Frosty Blue' . There is no doubt it is whiter than the standard form. Leaves from the near by trees, got into the crown and caused the brown spots. That wont be happening next year.

This one also has wider leaves than my other two.  It will be interesting to see if these differences continue as it grows. I had wondered how the position would affect this one, it gets less sun and is considerable more exposed.  Apart form the leaf damage it is fine.

Agave parryi HK1684

This is one of my favourite agaves. Smaller than many of the other forms but with very compact form and the spines are a great colour.

It is planted next to a agave parryi compacta

It was a tiny offset when i got it and has finally started to grow properly. It may have to be moved so there is space to grow.  The parryi hk1684 has one pop just out of view and this one that has been grown on in a pot. It's actually the same size as the parent when i got that one.

These get a simple cloche cover over winter, mainly because i don't know where i would replace them if they were damaged.  Plus it's nice to have them in perfect condition.

Agave x nigra

This one has just managed to hang on in there.  Every year it gets damaged by winter and then just recovers by the end of summer.  It is a lovely agave, but for some reason just doesn't seem to like my garden.  I tried moving one to a different location and that rotted altogether.

This one is going to be dug up shortly and moved,  it would be nice to have it looking better. It puts out lots of pups, so I'll probaly take one of those as a spare as well.

Agave salmiana var ferox

The only agave that actually sacres me, mainly because it has gone from this:

To this in only 3 years.

It is now well over a meter tall and almost 1.5m wide.  I always knew it grew to a very large size, it's just the speed of growth that is alarming.  You can see that it's been given no space and is almost in total shade. The plan for this area is to clear it, the agaves will be dug up and this one moved to somewhere else in the garden where it can be given more space.  A great agave, no probalems with my winters, but think carefully before planting.

Agave gentryi

I feel a little guilty about this one.  It is another great agave and mine has just become swamped.

It's in there somewhere.  The wierd thing is, while slow it continues to grow and shows no damage despite these conditions. I have the jaws version as well in a pot, with all the planned moves in this section I'll have to decide on what to do with it.

So there you have them.  I did say I've limted the number of varieties in the ground.