Mother of Thousands: The Saga Continues

There was one patch of soil on my property that hadn't been cultivated. This was a strange rectangular piece at the top of the driveway. It often strikes me that my property has way too much space for plants and not enough space for the actual house itself. I also had the job of potting the mother of thousands tubiflora plant I had been given and ignorantly put into the actual ground.

I put about twelve plants in a smaller pot inside my house, these are the rest of the offspring.

The first job was to plant the remaining mother of thousands baby plants into a pot that coordinated a little more with the house. I stuffed all of the plants into a large blue pot, and I'm already thinking I should have just dragged the huge, white pot they were in out to the front and kept them there. This pot won't be large enough for very long. The bright-green plants will turn the same beige and pink shade as the other plant.

The tubiflora version has already grown much larger than I anticipated and will need a larger pot.

Second, I uprooted the tubiflora and planted it in another dark blue pot I had. This plant has already grown enough so that I can easily see I'm going to have to put it in a much larger pot. Sigh. Oh well, at least I've moved it from the direct soil.

Now at the top of the drive I have two baby agave marginitas and two pots of slightly-different mother of thousands plants. The passion-flower that covers the wall, as you can see, is actually a very small part of the entire plot, and I have one more area to put an agave or another similarly large succulent. Since I have extra ground cover from the planters in back, I'm going to cover the soil with with it. Since I also have extra lining from putting rocks down, I think I'll prep for weeds by laying that down first.

Closing the Circle (no, this is not a Wiccan thing)

Aeonium rosettes cut cleanly from the mother plant.

This morning I did a little plant trimming and moving to complete the circle of aeoniums around my agave marginita. I started by cutting aeonium rosettes, then found that I had a smaller plant I could pull out and replant, as well as a rosette that had rooted.

This plant could be pulled out of the circle without leaving a large gap.

This little guy had already formed its own roots, so was a perfect choice.

In the larger plant I pulled, you can see how the long, brown stem would stand out as rather ugly in less dense foliage. This is a reason to deadhead a plant, and you would cut the stem off cleanly as closely to the "head" as possible.

Closing the gap. You can see I left some space for the agave where I had trimmed off leaves.

 I dug holes and planted the two rooted plants in the gap where the Mexican feather grass bush had been. They nearly enclose the space as is, but in less than a year will be dense enough with new growth to complete an entire circle around the agave.

Planted and watered.

After I planted the rooted plants, I got lazy. Because the aeoniums grow so prolifically, I wasn't too worried about coddling the two cuttings I had made. I set them in place lightly on top of the soil after I watered it for the rooted plants. Hopefully, without too much intervention from me, they will naturally callus and create a root system for themselves. It's worked before; these aeoniums are tough suckers!

Cuttings placed lightly balanced on the other plants so they won't touch soil directly.

The small plant in front/in back of the agave and aeoniums needs me to do some research on it (it was a gift), but I'm hoping it will be a small tree.

Agave Marginita - Time for a Trim

Ah, the agave. Favorite plant of city landscapers, likely due to the fact that it's nearly impossible to kill, will always make MORE agave to keep it company, and is so dangerous it keeps those ruffians off the street medians and freeway landscapes. The preferred agave is the Weber's Blue Agave which is the same agave used to make tequila, yay! However, the plant grows to be HUGE, boo! When it came time to get rid of my blue agave, the plant weighed about 175 pounds, and it wasn't nearly full grown. I couldn't do anything other than trim off the blade-like leaves to make it easier for the MEN to haul it out of the ground.

Weber's Blue Agave or agave tequilana at about 4-5 years old

There are nicer agaves to grow. One of two types of agaves I have held onto is the agave marginita. This agave is variegated with stripes of bluish-green, yellow, and white. It has some advantages over the agave tequilana:

• The marginita does not send out long rhizomes, and nearly all "pups" (or baby plants) will grow right at its base.
• It puts out very few pups, where an agave tequilana puts out dozens constantly (I rudely referred to mine as a slut)
• It is smaller than the agave tequilana, and can be planted in tighter quarters.
• It's more colorful than Weber's Blue
• It doesn't form a huge body filled with liquid-heavy, tequila-production friendly pulp

Agave marginita in late 2013

My own agave marginita was purchased by my brother in the autumn of 2013. It was very small, perhaps 8" tall at the most. As it grew, it produced very few pups, and when I redesigned by garden, I was able to dig it out, move it, and replant it myself without the help of extra muscle. I'm going to guess that when it did that in 2015 it weighed about thirty pounds, max.

Agave marginita in the summer of 2015

I decided to make it a focal piece in the new design, surrounding it with aeoniums. At least, it WOULD be surrounded by the aeoniums, once they bred a bit more and I separated and spread them out. The plant had grown into a lovely, wavy thing that reminded me of undersea kelp, and since I was going for the tidal pool look (a VERY popular succulent-garden design) the plant was perfect.

Nearly a year later and some things had changed. The aeoniums quickly grew and filled in the space around the plant with the exception of where the large Mexican feather grass bush grew. The agave itself grew in and on top of the aeoniums, and I decided that now was the time to trim it. The feather grass bush had given me MANY offspring bushes, and I pulled the original plant (which a neighborhood cat had decided to make into a toilet). This left a C-shape of aeoniums around the agave with some clear soil room for me to do some trimming.

Pups are growing, a tiny one on the right and a couple of larger ones on the left.

There were two tasks to be completed when it came to trimming the plant. First, I had to remove crowded, older leaves that had grown too close to the other plants and the soil. Next, I had to remove any pups that were growing off the mother plant. The feather grass bush had been so large it left a very nice-sized opening for me to work with.

My preferred blade for agave trimming.

To do this trimming, you will want a very sharp knife with a long blade, at least three to four inches. A box-cutter will not be long enough and you'll have to make slice after slice and saw through the leaf, which is about 3 inches thick at the base. A sharp blade will slice cleanly through, while a dull blade will get caught on the extremely tough fibrous tissue the plant is made of. Keep in mind that you are working among other large leaves, all of which have thorns on their edges, so you want a took that works well, fast, and requires the least amount of movement on your part!

 When I had finished, there were about 8-10 cut leaves and four pup plants that had been cut off. Most of the pups were not viable as individual plants because I had carelessly sliced through them without getting some of the rhizome/root.

After trimming. Those aeoniums really filled in!

 I could have trimmed off more leaves, but I like the plants to look full. In another year I'll have to trim around the plant again, removing those leaves closest to the ground, by which time it will have produced new ones from the center to take their place. At this point, I'm going to be separating, rooting and planting the aeoniums in order to complete a full circle around the agave.

Viable pup has roots growing separately from the slashed-through rhizome.

There was one viable pup that I decided to keep alive. I really do love how this plant looks. My father helped me remove the largest of the blue agave's offspring, and I put this little guy in its place. The patch at the top of my drive is the LAST part of the garden to be gotten in order, and I've decided to do succulents there as well.

The removed agave tequilana is probably about two years old.

Aw, it looks just like its mother plant did when we planted her!

Placing Plants: Pots vs. Ground

  The placement of plants is a decision that must take into consideration many factors. Before owning a house, I only had potted plants, and to recap, only one (an aeonium) ever survived! One of the most immediate things you can do to perk up a sad-looking plant is put it in the dirt, the real dirt. Of course, one still has to determine what area of ground will be the best for the plant.

My succulent cutting garden. The furniture is 1:12 dollhouse furniture from the 1980s.

  The first decision to be made is whether the plant should live indoors or out. In Southern California the fairly mild to warm climate supports quite a large variety of succulent plants, and worrying about plants getting frostbitten is something very rarely worried about. The one thing that can and does happen to some of my succulents is that they are too delicate for full sun. This applies to different types of succulents, but its good to know that young plants are easily burned in hot sun and must be given some sort of shelter until they reach adult size.
  

Grew "under" another adult plant.

  The mesembryanthemums in the indoor window box I grow cuttings in were on clearance at Home Depot. They could probably be planted outside, but I'm not comfortable putting these rock-shaped plants in the ground. I KNOW they'd get stepped on!

The cuttings garden is a safe indoor area for baby plants. 

The un-ID'd baby succulent loves its safe home.

  You can see in the photos where I have set baby plants from leaf cuttings atop the potting soil to grow safely indoors. Yes, I have used seed beads, crystals and rocks to cover the soil and make it purty. Well, "fairy gardens" are in now, aren't they?

  

 

  These three pots contain some of the smaller or more delicate plants. For instance, in our lovely lady on the far right is a small piece of that wacky jade plant they're calling "Gollum Fingers" these days, but in front of that is a haworthia that I had originally planted out of doors. The plant was just too delicate for direct sunshine, so I brought it indoors. Haworthias are popular indoor plants, especially in Asia, where cultivators have bred some frankly weird and wacky plants.

"String of Pearls" is NOT an easy grow!

  A plant that I potted but kept outdoors is this still-tiny string of pearls plant. It finally has grow some new leaves (those bulbous "pearls"), but is not thriving at all in its location of direct sunlight. I only potted it because its a trailing succulent, but  since it's in a pot I already have the flexibility to place the pot itself in a shadier location.

A "crown of thorns" euphorbia and a "bunny ear" grafted cactus

  The biggest problem I have with potted plants is keeping them watered! The above photo has a euphorbia with lovely orange-pink flowers. After planting it in that pot, I neglected it. When I finally started regular watering again, the new flower growth was pale yellow and white! At least it stayed alive, and it appears that the color is changing back to the terra cotta pink seen above.

A week after being in the ground.

   Back to the ground; if you want a plant to really grow, you've gotta give it room. This piece of floribunda would never had survived had it been in a pot. By sticking it in the wet earth near the hose spout, I've got a revitalized plant. I've never experienced this sort of regeneration with potted plants. Every plant I've left in this condition dried up and died in its pot.

Six weeks being in the ground.

  Controlling plant growth is something that a pot can assist with, but just because you've got a plant in a certain sized pot does not mean it will stop growing to fit the container! Plants should be repotted at least every two to three years. What putting a plant in a pot does do is prevent the plant from sending out underground shooters that pop up as pups. Of course, if I did have my agaves in a pot, they'd probably just skip the long rhizomes and make the babies right against the mother plant.

Agave pups broke ground about three feet away from mom.

  To wrap it up, then, most plants thrive in the ground, but succulents do grow quite well in pots. Succulent growers in cold climates will want to pot their plants so that the plants can be moved to warmer areas during winter. Pots might slightly inhibit your plant from reproducing, but not to a noticeable degree. In fact, I keep all of my cuttings in the kitchen, and here's the latest batch of will-be-plants:

All echeveria leaves, I believe.

Agave Propagation

Succulent plants have many qualities that make them ideal plants for the brown-thumbed gardener. One great quality of succulent plants is their ability to propagate themselves from cuttings and "pup" plants. Agave Americana, otherwise known as the century plant, is practically impossible to kill, and will even try to fill your garden with its offspring.

An adult plant, about 2-3 years old.

Agave are incredibly resilient, but some of those adaptations make them difficult to place in a garden. While agave start out small, they can grow six feet in width and height! Because of this, agave should not be planted within six feet of walkways. If you do plant an agave americana nearer to a walkway than this, you will have to prune the plant to prevent the blade-like leaves from reaching the pathway.  Both of the adult agaves in my garden were planted close to walkways which means pruning to maintain safety!

When weeding one evening, I felt a sharp pain in a buttock. Turning around slowly, expecting to see a hideous insect, I saw that an agave leaf-tip had stabbed through my pants and into my skin! One amazingly easy thing to do to make your agave more people-friendly is to use garden shears, clippers, or even household scissors to nip off the needle-sharp tip of each leaf. This is simple and does not require that one get very close to the leaves, which have spikes along their edges as well.

This agave pup has already started growing its own roots.

An agave will produce pups either at the base, or if there is no access to the top of the soil near the plant, it will grow a rhizome (root stalk) until it finds a point where the new plant will be able to access sunlight. The rhizome is bulbous and "jointed" and easily "pops" apart at each joint where the leaf meets the base of the root. A way to think of it is as an umbilicus that connects the new plant to the parent plant.

Nearly hidden under a shredded leaf, this tiny pup is the only one that's grown at the plant's base.

  After being surprised by a pup from my less than one foot wide agave americana marginata, I decided to take a closer look at my blue plant, and yup, there was a pup nestled at the base under a trimmed leaf! If I hadn't pruned the plant, I probably wouldn't have given it room to grow at the base. After removing the pup I carefully placed the decorative (and functional) rocks so that the soil was covered again.   

A very young agave pup has already grown roots at its base.

  To pull out a pup, dig underneath it enough to expose the rhizome before you pull. One or two quick jerks should break the rhizome at a joint and free the pup from the parent plant. At this point you either throw away the weed-pup, or if wanted, some quick surgery will give your agave pup an independent life.

Slice as much of the rhizome away as you can. The plant's roots should be directly beneath its body, not off to the side.

The rhizome needs to be trimmed so that the roots grow properly. Surprisingly, unlike some other pups I've pulled, this tiny base pup had already grown its own roots, which made my work worry-free. When slicing a plant free you create a huge open wound, which should usually be left to heal itself closed, or callous. This prevents infection, like a scab on a flesh wound.

  I'm not sure why I sliced the rhizome at an angle; I want to say it's recommended by I'm not sure it actually matters if you want the end to callous. Because my blue agave is so prolific, I'm not worried about a pup or two dying, and haven't worried about letting the pups callous after trimming their rhizomes.

The plant is now independent.

  I put the pup immediately in the dirt after slicing the rhizome. This will make a total of six agave pups I've replanted, and four that I've thrown away.  As the agave grows older, owners might want to save some pups in order to replace the agave once it blooms. After an agave blooms it dies, and apparently the bloom itself will contain many new plants.

This pup is about 2 months old.

  The mature agave pup in the second picture has now grown quite a bit! I pulled it out of the ground to do some experimental surgery. Not only did I snip off the sharp ends, but I also "shaved" the spikes on the leaf edges. Maybe I can carefully grow a "safer" agave.

The pup after a trim.

  A final note on agaves is about the end of their lifespan. A century plant will live for about a decade before blooming and dying. As might be guessed, the colloquial name derives from the incredibly long wait until the plant flowers. Once an agave dies, you must remove it. An adult agave will have a tough, heavy trunk, and a blooming agave also has a ten to twenty foot flower stalk! When you plant an agave, do keep in mind that in a matter of a few years it will have to be dug out and discarded. This is important to keep in mind when planning which plants to surround the agave with.