Agave Seedling You Say!!!!!

I do........that is an Agave havardiana seedling that finally popped out of the soil yesterday! I have planted 4 seeds of the following Agaves: celsii, havardiana, ocahui, ovatifolia, parrasana, utahensis eborispina, & victoriae-reginae.  I was really excited to get them going so they were in the freezer for a short amount of time (6 days). But of course the seeds were planted August 3rd, so I guess a week is not that long.  
This is the first Agaves I have tried, I think after this I'm going to try some Aloes. I'll try to keep up with the updating. As a matter of fact I have a collection of cactus seedlings from a July 14th planting that I'll show in the next couple of days and I guess I should show the growth on the seedlings from the July 14th 2012 entry. Stay tuned! 

Agave havardiana seedling

 

 

Gymnocalycium cardenasianum

This is one of the other plants I purchased out of the four at the OCSS this last weekend. Besides Agaves, Gymnocalyciums are my 2nd favorite succulent to collect and I have a number of them in the Death Valley Shack.   

Gymnocalycium cardenasianum

Origin is southern Bolivia and has been classified by some as a subspecies of G. spegazzinii. The spines are long and eagle claw like. The growth is to a width of 7 1/2" and a height of about 11". Flowering is in July or June and white to pink in color.   

Agave Parryi

I bought this Agave parryi about a month ago, wanting to post a photo of it now that it has been re-potted. I keep thinking about planting out in the front garden in the Yucca bed with the other Agaves, but I'm not sold on that idea.....yet. I had an Agave parryi that was about 24" wide and lost it in a bad freeze along with a very large Agave americana Variegata a few years ago, I was devastated. Since then I have changed my potting mix that I make so it drains faster. THE LEARNING NEVER ENDS!!!!! 

Love the blue color of this plant contrasting with the red spines that run along the sides of the leaves and that large single black center spine.

Narrow Leaf Century Plant

Agave Striata
This plant is in a 3" pot.

Hailing from the Sierra Madre Orientale mountain range in northeast Mexico. Easy to grow century plant looks quite different from the wider leaf types with its narrow, rounded, grey-green, knitting needle-like leaves that are quite stiff and delightfully painful.....Be sure to have your friends admire this plant closer. The initial rosettes will become 18" tall x 3' wide, but after the 8' tall flower stalks finish in midsummer, the rosette branches and continues to grow, eventually creating a stack of porcupine-like balls. I have read reviews of some people growing this outside in a zone 7, if kept dry. This little baby is staying in the Death Valley Shack, not putting this plant out till late Spring.

Thread Leaf Agave

AGAVE FILIFERA

Agaves are the number one succulents that I collect, Ferocactus being second. This little one is the Agave filifera variety planted in a 2 1/2 inch pot. The origin is Mexico (Chihuahua, Durango, Sinaloa, Sonora), at an elevation of 4500 to 7500 feet. Stemless rosette up to 1 1/2 to 2 feet tall, 2 to 3 feet wide; 100 leaves or more per rosette, each leaf has white markings, sharp tips and marginal fibers.

Foxtail, Swan Neck, or Lion's Tail

AGAVE ATTENUATA

This is my favorite Agave, I love the simplicity that this plant has. No spines, no teeth and a wonderful chartreuse color. Native to the plateau of central Mexico, as one of the unarmed agaves its popular as an ornamental plant in gardens where it is warmer and it does not fall below freezing. Agave attenuata is a tropical agave, it is frost sensitive, doesn't like hot sun, and requires more water than the other agave varieties. I have mine out on the patio during the late spring and summer, otherwise it lives in the greenhouse. It is planted in a 16" pot and is about 2 1/2 feet tall. It is very sad but this plant is disappearing out in its natural habitat. It blooms only when the plant is 10 years old or more. The flower stalk is large 7 to 13 feet with yellow-green drooping flowers organized as a raceme. The plant then dies leaving suckers or pups that grow into replacement plants.

USDA hardiness zone 10 to zone 11