Agave in a stock tank planter: The oomph factor
This not-so-gentle giant—my arms still bear scratches from transplanting it last week—takes center stage in my new foundation planting. I fell in love with this variegated agave’s writhing arms and green-and-yellow racing stripes last spring after I spotted one sprawling out of a simple concrete trough at Shoal Creek Nursery, backed by yellow-blooming Jerusalem sage. Soon after, MSS gave me a good-sized one out of her meadow garden, and I shoehorned it into the foundation bed while pondering its ultimate placement.
This foundation bed has undergone more makeovers than Madonna.
The first time, looking for a quick and easy fix right after I moved in, I nurtured the easy, native, cottage-garden plants already there (orange lantana, Salvia leucantha ) and added big muhly and colorful skeletonleaf goldeneye and Cuphea ignea (cigar plant), leaving a straight-line trio of dwarf yaupon balls along the house for winter interest, even though I didn’t love the way they looked. That design proved beautiful in late summer and fall but lackluster in winter and spring, so in time I redid it again, adding a small pomegranate tree as an anchor and a small miscanthus, and removing the less structural though colorful lantana and goldeneye. Again, I left the ho-hum trio of yaupons, somehow justifying their presence.
Spring came, and the pomegranate flowered intensely, beautifully orange…and I hated the way it clashed with my pink rose and salvias. Every time I pulled into the driveway, I cringed. This would not do. When the pomegranate’s flowers faded, the effect was not bad…
…but again it lacked something. An essential oomph factor.
This time, no lack of boldness. The line of dwarf yaupons—gone. The clashing pomegranate—moved to the hot garden in the back. The stripey Agave americana ‘Marginata’—center stage in a sunken cattle trough (well drilled for drainage) creating a perfect, silver circle around it. I know this agave will get huge, but it offsets pups like crazy, and I’ll just rip it up (and my arms, no doubt) when it becomes unwieldy and replace it with a pup. Or some other agave that I’ve fallen in love with by then.
Supporting cast members include ‘Yaku Jima’ miscanthus, Jerusalem sage, Salvia leucantha, Cuphea ignea, and apple-green bamboo muhly, all transplanted from the same bed; a few low-growing succulents like African aloe and ‘Angelina’ sedum; cheerful, little hymenoxys daisy; and another small agave, Queen Victoria.
Oomph!
All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I probably don’t need to tell you how envious I am… It’s a lovely addition. I wonder, is sinking it in the pot more than just a cool design element? Are agaves like mint and need to be kept from taking over the earth? Or perhaps it was to keep it from biting too much while you planted it? (I still bear scars from repotting ours years ago…)
Hi, Kris. So far as I know, agaves don’t take over like creeping plants, and although this one produces plenty of pups it’s very easy to sever them from the mother plant (I just gave away four that way). The sunken trough is a design element, and I think I’ll do a post about it soon since several commenters are wondering about it. —Pam
Yes, you see green emanating from SW IN. I just love the Agaves. I can just see you wrestling with this brute. There is an older fellow here in town that has a huge blue agave that he pulls out of the ground each winter and drags it into his glass covered area and it lies there on its side until spring when he drags the beast back outside where it happily resides the rest of the year.
Now that is dedication! Agaves are one of those species that inspire either love or hate, and I’ve met plenty of people who wouldn’t put one in their garden if you paid them to. But those who love agaves, no matter what climate they hail from, would do just about anything to grow them. —Pam
I too am having green fits (they go so nicely with the frost and ice and snow here in Nova Scotia) but love the ooomph factor. In fact, you’ve just about convinced me I need to go back to the store where I was looking at bromeliads on Saturday–not to plant outside, but just because I like the structure of them so very much, in flower or out. But I’ll wait til the mercury rises to closer to just freezing (as opposed to -10 F) before I do!
I’ve never seen a pomegranate flower before, and I just love it. Are they large like a hibiscus flower or more like an apple or pear blossom?
Hi, Jodi. The ‘Wonderful’ pomegranate flower is about 3 or 4″ in diameter—not as large as a hibiscus flower but bigger than an apple blossom. Its deep, saturated orange color and ruffly petals make it very showy. And an attention hog. —Pam
Love both the agave and pomegranate. A small agave in a trough under the eaves isn’t looking good right now, turning brownish green instead of blue gray. Maybe in a pot turned on its side that Lisa mentioned above, an agave could winter over here, or maybe not. The pomegranate might make it, it might be tried next year. Your beds all look so well balanced for size, shape and color.
I am surprised that a pomegranate would survive in Tennessee, Frances, but maybe in a protected microclimate. However, there are a number of agaves that do well in colder climates. Specifics can be found at online nurseries like High Country Gardens and Yucca Do. —Pam
I have the same question Kris did. Why the trough? Is agave invasive?
And for those of us who are putterers in the garden, what events are there for the upcoming April garden day that I might want to play hookie and come to Austin?
Hi, Chris. The trough is a design element. I’ll post more about it soon to answer any questions.
The Garden Bloggers Spring Fling is for garden bloggers only, a networking and social opportunity facilitated by garden tours and talks. If you are not a garden blogger, there’s a day of garden talks available to the general public that same day (April 5) at Mayfield Park. You might want to check it out. —Pam
That agave certainly has the oomph factor! I may have mentioned that I am collecting agaves and yuccas for the new garden. I wish I had those lovely grasses.
Agaves do look great with ornamental grasses. Do you have any you like to use with your agaves and yuccas? —Pam
I wouldn’t call this agave invasive as it doesn’t spread around like bamboo, or horseherb, or bindweed. However, it is very prolific and it gets really big (5 feet high and across). I’m guessing the container is to keep the gravel underneath from looking neat and not straying into the mulched areas. Likewise, to make it easier to keep the weeds and the leaves out of the gravel. I wish I had done something like that.
BTW, Austin gardeners–anyone else who wants some agave pups, let me know. I figure that they’re so expensive at the nurseries because the nurseries know they’ll only ever sell you one. Mine were passed along to me by Valerie of Larvalbug.
MSS, I just heard from Tom Spencer that this agave gets even bigger than 5 feet; he’s seen one as big as 10 feet! Needless to say, mine will not be allowed to achieve that height or width.
The trough is a design element, but it does allow for the creation of well-draining soil in a heavy-clay garden. I’ll post more about it later. —Pam
Pam, your post and the comments read like the minutes of the Agave Appreciation Society! This new one does have the OOmph factor and when you pull in the driveway you’ll be smiling instead of cringing. It will be fun to see the redone border in person.
But I still admire the pomegranate flowers, remembering what Elizabeth Lawrence wrote, “A pomegranate tree was one
of the first plants to come into my garden when I started to make a new one, and it was one of the first to go, for I could never find a place where the burning scarlet of the flowers was not at war with its surroundings. Now I often wish I had kept the pomegranate and let everything else go.”
I hope your young pomegranate can be an asset in its new location.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
Annie, I don’t know how you do it, but you always add a special something extra in your comments, and the Elizabeth Lawrence quote perfectly reflects my experience with the coveted, then unsettlingly intense, pomegranate. I haven’t given up on it yet and think it will work well in the back garden near Green Hall, but the soil conditions may not suit it. We will see whether it will happily bloom again or sulk. I’m not ready to let everything else go to accommodate it, and I hope I don’t one day regret it, like Elizabeth. —Pam
Pam: I love the progression of your garden! Nothing stays the same and perfection is rarely achieved but the joy of gardening is in the pursuit! Love the Agave. Can I have a margarita now?
Yes, the pursuit is where happiness lies. Come on down in April, and there’ll be a margarita with your name on it. —Pam
Funny!
When you have Agave in your garden, we have it in our windows at the north.
I think they are good plants beacouse you dont have to look over them so mutch.
Ken
Here in Austin where summer droughts are common and intense heat is guaranteed, we like agaves for the same reason. They don’t require much looking after. —Pam
This post is so timely for me, for some reason agaves have just come across my radar and I’m going to plant one in my yard this year. In the meantime I’m drooling over a book full of fabulous pictures of succulents (the text is great too), it’s called The Jewel Box Garden by Thomas Hobbs. I checked it out from the library but I think I will go buy it, I love it that much.
I like the beautiful photos in Hobbs’s book too. I have a dog-chewed copy from my mother’s bookshelf, but luckily only the cover was damaged, not the photo pages inside. Have fun choosing your new agave, and thanks for your comment. —Pam
Pam: We don’t have any grasses in the garden centers here, except purple fountain grass. Maybe I have to try to grow some from seed? You made me laugh with your comment about why they sell agave so expensive. All mine except 1 type I got as pups free from friends or even the side of the road. I think too, many people don’t really appreciate how you can use agave and yuccas in landscaping-I mostly see them in the Caribbean as lonely sentinels somewhere by the front or back fence.
What?? No grasses at your garden centers? Well, I’d be happy to mail you some seed from my ‘Adagio’ miscanthus, though I’m not much of a seed-grower myself and am no expert collector either. Shall I just give it a try anyway? If yes, you can send me your address via my contact page. —Pam
I live in Mexico City, where the ornamental agaves are a sight to behold! They do indeed get gigantic, and the arms of the variegated agave are by far the most loco. I can’t wait to travel to Tequila, Mexico, to see the giant agave farms — all blue agave.
I would love to see the agave farms too, Joy. Last summer on a trip to Tanzania, I saw a lot of sisal plants—what they call agaves—planted along the edges of fields. I learned that they were imported from Mexico in the 1800s and became integral to the textile industry there. Another type of agave crop. Thanks for visiting! —Pam