I've joked on and off about my fear that all the 'Blue Glow' Agaves in my south side garden will bloom at once. Agaves are monocarpic, which means that they die once they bloom. 'Blue Glow', a hybrid of Agave attenuata and Agave ocahui, forms a solitary rosette and doesn't normally produce pups either at its base or by runners, except on occasion if it's grown in a pot where its development is constrained. According to my records, I planted five of the seven plants I have in that area between September and November 2014. I added one more in September 2015. I've no record as to when I planted the seventh specimen but my guess is that it can't have been longer than a year later. I purchased all my plants from small pots before they ballooned in popularity - and price.
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| All 7 of my 'Blue Glow' Agaves are shown in this photo, along with several 'Blue Flame' Agaves. The latter are prolific puppers. Most of the 'Blue Flame' plants are pups of the original plant I added to the bed in 2016. |
Estimates of the life span of Agave 'Blue Glow' vary from seven to fifteen years. If I assume my plants were at least a year old at time of purchase, they range from seven to nine years old at present so my fears about blooms in my near-term future aren't unreasonable. I spotted a 'Blue Glow' in bloom in a neighbor's garden a couple of weeks ago and it was noticeably smaller than my largest plant.
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| My neighbor's 'Blue Glow' with developing bloom stalk in mid-June |
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| Photos of the bloom stalk taken yesterday. There are no flowers yet. |
I took a close look at my 'Blue Glows' a couple days ago and my apprehension inched up a couple of notches.
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| There's no sign of a bloom stalk but something looked off with the large plant in the background, warranting a closer look |
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| Can you see it? Look closely at the right side of the plant in the rear. |
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| This closeup photo shows two pups developing not from the plant's base but from its side! I'm taking this as evidence that this Agave is preparing to bloom. |
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| Closeup of the larger of the 2 pups |
As mentioned, this Agave doesn't usually produce pups but it may do so when it blooms. Blogger friend Hoover Boo at Piece of Eden has had experience with with these 'Blue Glow' off-shoots and I'm taking lessons from her description. As there's no apparent way to remove the developing pups from the Agave's side at this stage, I'm going to leave them alone and hope I can remove and plant them after the mother plant blooms out. I'm hoping that I'll also get bulbils (plantlets) from the flower stalk, which seems to be the most reliable way to propagate these Agaves. Another site I checked mentioned coring the Agave to force its production of pups but, on the theory that my plant is nearing bloom stage, that seems counter-productive.
As a postscript, while taking updated photos of my neighbor's blooming agave, I also took a few photos of the house next door that recently installed a new landscape.
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| This was a view of the new area back in mid-June, as shown in a prior post |
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| Updated photos featuring more plants and a nice blanket of mulch. In addition to the Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima) and Lantana planted during their first round, the landscapers added large noID Agaves in 4 areas, blue chalksticks (Senecio mandraliscae), purple heart (Tradescantia pallida 'Purpurea') and mother-in-law's tongue (noID Sansevieria). |
It'll be interesting to see how this garden develops.
All material © 2012-2022by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party