Designing with SucculentsHow to incorporate succulents and cacti into your garden design
Agaves are spectacular plants with prickly - adjoin leaves .
Agave plant life offer an ideal answer for gardeners reconsidering their water - guzzling landscape painting , while bringing the add benefit of dramatic play and structure as well as texture and subtle color . Agaves arise best in the Southwest and Mediterranean climate , but are adaptable and can also be grow out of their zone in pots if devote wintertime trade protection .
GROWING AGAVE PLANTS
Why grow agave?
Zones:
Generally agaves thrive in the warmer semitropic zones that feel seasonal dry period ( Zones 8 to 10 ) . A few mintage aboriginal to the southwest United States and northern Mexico support more extreme heating plant and cold;Agave parryiwill tolerate minus 20 degree F ( Zone 5 ) . The best area for grow the most types is the Mediterranean climate areas of California . However , many mintage will thrive in the desert Southwest . In insensate or wet expanse elsewhere , some metal money can be grown if kept wry and well above zero in the winter .
Exposure:
century plant are sun worshiper , though light spook for a couple of hours is acceptable .
Soil:
Agaves are very adaptable . grunge humble in remains content are fine . Texture can be sandy or rocky . In areas with substantive rainfall , a well - drained soil is necessary .
Planting:
flora or transplant in leaping and early fall , giving large species plenty of way to attain maximal sizing . Make trusted that no part of the leaf rosette is enshroud with stain , which can make decompose .
Watering:
Until established , water once or twice a week . Eventually , agaves prefer to dry out between each watering . Overwatering may encourage fungal root putrefaction . In California , heavy winter rains can cause lowly , even medium - sized , American aloe to rot .
Protection:
Protect small plants from summer sunburn and soft - entrust specie from sunburn and frost with shade cloth .
AGAVE PROS AND CONS
AGAVE PICTURES
Photo by : Barb Ries .
AGAVE VICTORIAE - REGINAE
The Queen Victoria agave is less than two foot across , perfect for a pot , with striking leaves butt on in white . Very slow develop it can take 40 year to bloom . Purchase an older plant to enjoy its fledged years . Hardy to 10 level F.
AGAVE GENTRYIXA . MT
A hybrid betweenA. gentryi , which is compact with rounded leaves and blood-red ( very sharp ) spines , andA. montana , which is varying but in the main has longer , narrower leaves . The two coinage overlap habitat in Mexico and can naturally hybridize . testify here is the aesthetic folio form at the shoot apex ’s bud cone cell .
AGAVE PARRYIVAR.TRUNCATA
One of the nicest century plant for the landscape . Its striking artichoke - like , down in the mouth - gray rosette and clumping substance abuse earn it a outstanding patch in the garden . Grows two to three foot grandiloquent and three to four feet across . If kept dry , it will suffer 15 degrees F.
AGAVE LEOPOLDII
A dwarf agave substantially used in a container . If planted in the solid ground , it will form a clop mound over three foot across . Noted for its wispy curled fibers that decorate the leaf margin . Hardy in zone 9 to 10 .
AGAVE AMERICANA‘VARIEGATA ’
Since the 19th century , a pop garden plant in Southern California , with creamy golden bar down the length of the foliage . Its thick guttered six- to eight - metrical foot - long leaves make it a whopper of a specimen up to 12 feet across . size of it can be greatly reduced if it ’s kept in a container . As with many other variegated agaves , it needs protective cover from sunshine during the hottest part of the day , especially in desert areas . Hardy to Zone 8 .
AGAVE FALCATA
Some may choose this as a container plant . Its brusk , soaked yucca - like parting have acuate terminal spine that can provide some unpleasant surprise for the unwary gardener . The narrow-minded foliage provides a with child texture , contrast with bolder foliaged plants , including other agave . Grows to 18 inch wide . Hardy to 15 degree F.
AGAVE Treasure State
A solitary American aloe ( it does not make get-go ) recently discovered in Mexico , three to five feet tall and four to six foot wide . The chestnut dark-brown borderline sticker counterpoint against plenteous green leaves make it pleasing to view , especially in a placement where there is backlighting . Hardy to 10 degrees F.
AGAVE‘CORNELIUS ’
Possibly an deviate form of the variegatedA. americana . Also sold under the invalid and rather ungainly name ofA. americana‘Marginata Aurea Monstrosa ’ . plant in the ground , it will maturate to two feet across and 18 inches grandiloquent , but will be somewhat smaller in a container . Very slow growing , so seek to purchase a heavy , older specimen . Hardy to 25 degrees F.
DESIGNING WITH AGAVES
AGAVE FAQS
Is agave a cactus?
Agave is a eccentric of succulent , commonly confused with cactus . Remember the formula that all cacti are succulent , but not all succulents are cacti . The independent difference between agaves and cacti is the presence of leafage , cacti do not have them , while agaves do .
Do agaves flower?
Used chiefly for their startling leaf prowess , agaves also eventually flower , though bloom indicate the end of the works ’s life cycle , when they set forth in a blaze of glory with a tall stiletto heel or tremendous , treelike bifurcate stalk . After the towering steeple bristling with tubular blossoms are finish , the female parent plant die off . But look on the mintage , new pups start to form either before or after flowering , which can be removed and put into containers of their own .
How are agaves propagated?
Pups can be pulled free from the parent works to make more of a skillful thing . In addition to the progeny that sprout from the roots , some agaves make plantlets on their flower stalk . Both pups and plantlets can be take out and planted in their own pots .
AGAVES INDOORS
If you live in an area with sustained cold , bring your century plant indoors for the wintertime , or leave them inside class - round . Here are some top :
photo taken at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek , California .
This clause was adapted from its original rendering for use on the WWW .
Structural Plants & How to Use ThemDesert Plants for Arid LandscapesMagnificent Mangave
