Bloomin’ cactus, verbena, and Moby
It’s been raining cats and dogs here in Austin — and raining lions and wolves, if that’s an appropriate comparison, over in Houston. Our lakes are full again (which seems a miracle, considering how low they got during the multi-year drought), and spring seems full of promise. My own garden is abloom, like this little cactus — some sort of Echinocereus, I think.
With flowers showy enough to grace Carmen Miranda’s headdress, cacti amaze me when they bloom. They can seem curmudgeonly in their spiny, slow-growing way, and then suddenly — bam! — they do this. Party time!
Butterfly-attracting flower clusters of Verbena bonariensis sit atop long stems, and yesterday I noticed this visitor enjoying a snack — a gray hairstreak butterfly.
Along one fence, the creamy white flowers of star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) in full bloom attract…ME. I love the sweet fragrance and can’t resist taking a long whiff every time I pass by.
But bittersweet is the flowering of one particular plant in my garden: Moby, my big, white whale of an agave that I’ve had for 10 years. Agave ovatifolia (aka whale’s tongue agave), like all agaves, blooms once in its lifetime and then immediately dies.
I’m taking daily pictures of the bloom spike, which is shooting up at Jack-and-the-beanstalk speed.
In just two weeks, the asparagus-like flower stalk has grown 10 feet above the 5-foot tall agave.
Yesterday I noticed that the tip is enlarging, and what looks like yellow flowers are emerging from the uppermost triangular leaves.
Does this mean it will flower before it hits the tree canopy above? I sure hope so. Stay tuned for more pictures, and follow me on Instagram and Facebook for daily updates on Moby’s last, grand gesture before he goes to the big ocean in the sky.
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Oh, Pam…it’s so sad about Moby…but at least he’s going out with a bang!
He is indeed. I like his style. —Pam
I love the Carmen reference. Ha… oh so true. She was a colorful lady. That big stalk on Moby is amazing. I have never seen such a large stalk. I hope it blooms before it gets into the trees so the bees and birds will find it. Your garden looks so lush with all that rain. I am glad to hear your area hasn’t been flooded. How awful to see the people with their homes underwater.
I hope so too, Lisa, although a friend told me yesterday that agave blooms tend to stink, so maybe it’s better if it climbs a bit higher?
As for the floods, yes, Houston has been so hard hit. What a crazy amount of rain. In Texas it seems it’s always all or nothing. —Pam
“They don’t dance like Carmen no more”…except maybe in your garden.
I love those cactus blooms…soft with prickly.
Sorry about Moby. But, he’s doing what he was meant to do.
Happy Earth Day!
You are so right, Linda. He’s doing what he was meant for. That’s a good way to look at it. —Pam
Beautiful garden pictures, even if Moby, who certainly is going out in style. I’m jealous of your rain, but not Houston’s… Why can’t rain just come in regular amounts and make us all happy?
I know. The weather is so crazy here — and maybe everywhere these days. I hope you get some (good) spring rain, Renee. —Pam
I love Verbena bonariensis. It does reseed in my garden, but its foliage is so small and the overall habit so light and airy that I don’t mind volunteers.
So sad about Moby but he’s brought you (and us) a lot of joy over the years.
I’d love to get some verbena volunteers, but I think there’s just too much natural mulch — i.e., live oak leaf litter — in my garden for many plants to seed out unless they’re near the decomposed granite paths out front. And then…watch out! —Pam
Oh Moby, don’t go, we love you so! (with apologies to Maurice Sendak and Where the Wild Things Are)
Moby says it’s time for his wild rumpus. —Pam
Despite what it means for Moby, I can’t help but to be impressed by his flower stalk. Star jasmine seems to have suddenly burst into bloom everywhere – I swear the neighbor’s fence across the street burst into bloom overnight.
And I bet (I hope) you can smell it all the way from across the street. —Pam
Hi Pam! Thank you so much for the photos of Moby– what an exciting time! I’ve been wondering about why they need to make such tall blooms. Perhaps so the blooms can be seen even when the agave itself might be shaded by a shrub or something?? It sure is a sight to see. Cannot wait to see his farewell bloom 🙂
That’s a good question, Lauren. In an agave’s native, typically arid habitat, I wouldn’t think it would have much vertical competition. Maybe getting the flowers way up in the air helps pollinators find them. Or maybe it protects the flowers from browsing animals at ground level. Now I’m wondering… —Pam
OK, I did a bit of online sleuthing and found this, “The Grand Defiance of Agave Blooms” by Chris Clarke:
“Agaves are pollinated by flying animals, mainly bats, though hummingbirds do visit the flowers of some species, as do larger insects such as hawkmoths. When you’re pollinated by animals that are flying around looking for your flowers, getting those flowers up off the ground as high as you can is a good strategy. Your visitors will see your flowers from farther away, for one thing, and they’ll be safer from ambush predators than they would be if your blooms stayed down in the underbrush. And once your pollinating species gets used to the idea that you’re putting your flowers out on tall spikes, they’ll search for tall spikes and may well overlook the shorter ones.
Evolutionary pressure to attract those pollinating animals, in other words, likely encouraged the ancestors of our present-day agaves to grow taller and taller flower stalks to compete with their kin. At some point this internecine arms race reached a critical threshold, as arms races generally do: the ancestral agaves started building flower stalks so tall that they didn’t survive the process.”
BATS! Oh my, that is so cool. Thank you so much for the info Pam (and also your ultra-timely response)! This is why your blog is the Very Best 😀
Aw, you are very welcome! I was curious too, actually. —Pam
About Moby, Prince (who just died) said it best: Life is a party, and parties aren’t meant to last forever.
Time for Moby to party like it’s 1999. —Pam
We’ve been seeing distressing footage of Houston’s deluge. Glad to hear the rain gods are using more restraint in your neck of the woods. A blogger here has been chronicling the growth of his Agave blooming stalk and it shoots up an amazing amount each day. You would think you could almost perceive the movement if you looked closely enough.
I really think I could if I had the patience to sit still and stare at it for an hour, Ricki. —Pam
You haven’t posted a picture of Moby in months. Is it too sad? Did you have to remove him entirely? Have you replaced him?
He’s actually in today’s post, in the background behind the ‘Bloodspot’ mangave flower spike. Far from looking too sad, he is nearly unchanged! I keep waiting for the dramatic decline that with other agaves seems to happen overnight after the bloom. Moby’s still hanging in there, with just a tiny bit of yellowing in the leaves. —Pam
Why yes, there he is! Glad to see he’s still looking good.