Agaves & cool metalwork at Agave Landscape & Nursery
Agaves—I just love them. So you can imagine how it’s been tormenting me to drive past Agave Landscape & Nursery every time I take busy Hwy. 290 West to my favorite stoneyard in Oak Hill. On Thursday, as the gardeners of Austin prepared for Friday’s predicted hard freeze, my mom, cousin, and I were returning from a shopping trip in Dripping Springs when Agave’s red sign beckoned. I glanced desperately in my rear-view mirror to make sure I wouldn’t be rear-ended, yanked the wheel to the left, and jounced to a stop in the gravel parking lot just before closing time.
The staff was busy shutting off fountains, covering tender plants, and rolling some things into storage, but they graciously allowed me to take a few pictures, even though the nursery did not look its best that day. Still, I found plenty of interest, including these tall glazed pots, perfect for turning into disappearing fountains.
Agave has a lot of really big agaves. I imagine they sell these giants for their landscape installation jobs.
Colorful Mexican pots brightened up even the cold, gray day of our visit.
Columnar cacti are less commonly planted in Austin than agaves, but they are gaining a foothold here.
Speaking of columns, I adore these concrete-column stools and table. Anyone could make this out of tubular concrete forms sold at home improvement stores. But how to attach the tabletop? I should have peeked underneath. (Remember Jeff Pavlat’s cool concrete pillars? They were made the same way, but with stained or tinted concrete.)
In addition to the real thing, Agave sells metal agaves as garden sculpture.
Metalwork seems to be one of their specialties. A metal flame fence is soon to be painted red, the manager told us. Now that’s hot!
I also admired this verdigris disc hanging from a live oak, like a green-cheese moon.
A monstrous, writhing variegated American agave grows near the entrance. It’s stunning, especially with the contrast of purple heart growing below.
A metal cactus offers the architecture without the spines. But I prefer the real thing.
Another enormous agave with purple heart. Feed me, Seymore!
What a cool place. I plan to come back in warmer weather to see Agave in full display mode. Until then, I’ll stay warm on this drizzly, cold day by thinking of that sizzling fence.
UPDATE: Agave Landscape & Nursery has gone out of business.
All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I like the metal work here. The flame fence would be appreciated today as it is cold and wet here.
I’d make that hard left into a nursery named Agave too…thanks for the tour, Pam, and also the link back to Jeff’s stained concrete pillars. Something to mull over this winter.
Way cool! Another place I haven’t been. I’ve bookmarked a bunch of your posts so I can plan excursions. This joins the pack.
Uhm…I think those metal agaves could withstand our freezing temps. Sign me up! I’ll take 3. So how much were they?
Thanks for the tour Pam!
Sorry, but I don’t know, Loree. I was so busy taking pics before they closed that I didn’t look at any price tags. These metal agaves and cacti are found in several stores around Austin, and probably made in Mexico. I’ve also seen them at Miguel’s Imports and Desert Dreams in Austin and at Wildseed Farms in Fredericksburg.
Oh, what a teaser for us who loves agave but can not have it year around!
Thank you for your comment on my blog! Of course it’s you Pam whom I mentioned! So, you are not picking any more? It takes a lot of time, of course! I miss many posts. If you ever figure out how to stretch a day to 26-28 hours, tell me please! Have a happy Holiday Season!
Hi, Tatyana. No, I hardly ever cruise Blotanical for the purpose of picking posts. It just takes too much time. I use Blotanical for finding new local blogs and for communicating with bloggers I don’t have email addresses for. But I use my own feed reader for following other blogs, which is easier. Happy holidays to you too! —Pam
I would love a metal agave! Thanks for the tour
Oh Oh Oh Oh OH! The pots, the plants, the metal! What a place, Pam. I hope they did not suffer any damage from the cold snap. The flames in particular piqued my interest. I am not sure I would paint them red, but since they are supposed to be flames…. I could do some damage there.
Frances
I drive like that too. Impulsiveness meets cool garden shops equals quick turn offs!
You find the neatest places to share. Love those huge agave!
That agave setcresia combo is an idea to steal.
Can’t decide which I like best, Pam: the real agaves, the metal ones, or those amazing Mexican pots! Talk about colourful. I’m wondering if the concrete table base had heavy rebar set into it so that the tabletop could rest on it, but be removed for winter storage? I’m going to puzzle over this for a while.
Thank you for your supportive comments, Pam. I think refreshing the blog look and ‘talking’ with my fellow bloggers has done me a world of good. Muchly appreciated.
I doubt there’s any winter storage of that table, Jodi; no need in our mild climate. But surely there’s some sort of attachment so that the tabletop doesn’t tip over accidentally.
You’re welcome for the comments. I’m glad to hear that you’re feeling recharged. —Pam
I have passed by the nursery too but never stopped there. I think I had better go and pick up a couple of those metal sculptures. I have seen them in Phoenix mixed in with the real thing and they look really attractive. Apart from that I think they might be a smart buy for my garden. I lost a LOT of my wonderful A. d in the freeze. Boo hoo!
Oh no! I thought about your Agave desmettianas after that freeze, hoping they made it through somehow. So sorry to hear you lost a lot of them, but I trust you still have a few in protected storage.
My son has some of those, and was going to give me one, but my husband said we don’t have room in the house for it over the winter. I may have to find some room. That sure is a cool assortment!
Hello Pam,
I wish I could have been there with you. Agave are absolutely my favorite succulents. I even love the metal agaves. I have some of the Mexican Fence Post columnar cactus in my garden. It is easy to grow and they do not have too many spines. I feel sorry for people who spend a lot of money on the large, mature specimens of Agave only to find that they flower that much sooner and need to be replaced ;0)
That’s a good point, Noelle. Bigger agaves are impressive but that much closer to their first and last bloom show. —Pam
You are personally responsible for turning me into an Agave fan. That large variegated one is incredible!
(And I like the concrete ‘chair columns’ too – how interesting. The table top could be all sorts of things (I was thinking a mosaic) – but what a simple, do-able idea…
Yea, another agave fan! Do you have one in your coastal S.C. garden yet, Pam? Maybe in a pot? —Pam
OK…first Sol’stice, and now this. I’m going to have to make the trip, up to Dripping Springs. It’s not like it’s a long way, for me. 13 miles from here to the intersection @ RR12 and 290.
I love the metal cacti. At least, they don’t die on you.
There’s a big, stainless steel agave sculpture in Palm Springs, CA. I should post the picture of it. That is a great town to see xeric plantings.
Stay warm.
I’d love to see Palm Springs one day—and Santa Barbara and L.A. and the list goes on. BTW, Agave is in Oak Hill, not Dripping Springs (it’s on the way to D.S. from Austin), but it can’t be too far away for you. —Pam
Some suggestions on the table and chairs. Instead of round cardboard you could use boards screwed together to form a square, hexagon or octagon for the coloumns that make the chairs and table base. I think big triangles would make a striking look to it and nobody else has them. You could also have a woodworker use a router to make designs by cutting grooves in the wood to have a design in the concrete. One set of forms is all you would need and actually be cheaper than concrete cardboard forms. After one sets, just unscrew it and put it back together to pour the next one. Just remember to spray the forms down with Pam as a releasing agent so they come off easily.
You could also have metal backs made out of rebar to stick in the concrete chairs before the cement sets. It would make them a little more comfortable and would make it go with the metal band of the table better.
Cool ideas, Bob! You sound like you’ve done this kind of thing before. Thanks for the tip about using Pam cooking spray too. —Pam