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!

Aeonium Flowering and Windy Conditions

The brief thunderstorm we had the other morning was followed by some heavy winds, which are hell on arboreal aeoniums (aeoniums that are tree-like). Succulents tend to have very shallow roots, and while most plants have extensive root systems that anchor them in place, most succulent plants are quite easy to remove from the soil.

The replanted aeonium, now tied to old rebar and an iron sculpture.

The wind blew over the latest blooming stem on my oldest succulent, and I was nervous of it enough to immediately go out front to fix it, without putting on my gloves. ALWAYS PUT ON YOUR GLOVES! In my case, I was forced to improvise a stake for it, and while I had a good, steady item to tie the plant stem to, it was rough on my hands.

My first instinct, having no tall wooden stakes, was to use a second piece of rebar to stake this plant (I had used the first of the two leftovers to stake the large green euphorbia next to the aeonium). I shoved the rebar in as deep as I could, but it wasn't enough to keep the plant upright and steady.

Garden decor to the rescue! My brother went through a period of iron sculpture, and I am the proud owner of a couple of his pieces. One of our favorites, the Tree, is in the front yard. It's gotten magnificently rusted in the weather, and its structure allowed for me to rest the aeonium against a sort of crotch formed at the top of the sculpture.

This is where I should have worn my gloves. Rough, rusty iron. Bare hands. I'm lucky this was all I got:

Now, saving this plant may seem silly, because if you've read my other post on aeoniums, you will already know that if the plant is flowering, it is going to die afterward. Darn it, though, I've had this guy going in various offshoots for eight years, and I'm proud of the five foot tall plant! Besides, it has an offshoot I want to keep on the main plant as long as possible.

 You can see where the offshoot has grown lateral roots at its base. Hopefully, when the larger plant passes away, it will be easy to break off and simply plant on its own with roots already grown. If you look at the picture at the top, though, you'll see the stem is shaped like a horseshoe, so it's likely I will have to chop half of it off to end up with one straight stem.

Why is this titled in reference to flowering? Another one of my aeoniums is in the process! One of my ground-level plants that surrounds the feature agave is blooming! This patch of aeoniums started as a few small plants and a larger plant, which grew, and grew, and produced offshoots, etc...

I've just never had one of my newer guys bloom before! It would appear that aeoniums need perhaps at least four or five years of growth before they bloom and die. Since I only have one plant blooming, it is unlikely that the blossoms will be fertilized and produce viable seeds, same with the arboreal aeonium.

So, as far as propagation, your best bet is to hope for offshoots. This is standard for nearly all succulent plants. It's much easier to create new plants through offshoots and cuttings than by collecting and planting seeds. The good news is that in the time it takes for your aeonium to mature and flower (then die), it will likely produce many offshoots which can be separated into individual plants.

An offshoot of my first blooming aeonium. Just ONE leaf marred by snail nibbles. Grr.

A closer view of the offshoot. This type of aeonium is known as "cyclops" because of the "eye" pattern.

This little guy is an amazing survivor of the snails and has gotten sturdy enough to be transplanted to the foreground.

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.

The Elegant Aeonium

  Aeoniums are easily recognized as succulents, their fleshy leaves growing in rosettes. Originally distributed by sailors as souvenirs from the Canary Islands, they're readily available at nurseries and home stores; my first aeonium was a Target purchase of aeonium cyclops, a purple aeonium with green at the center of the rosettes. Aeoniums propagate frequently by offshoots or pups, and produce seeds once in their lifetime, dying after blooming.

Baby Aeonium right after being put in the ground.

The same plant a few weeks later.

  

  Wait, aeoniums die after blooming? Yes, aeoniums are like agaves in that they live for years, then bloom once and expire. This isn't necessarily a problem, however. As long as the gardener knows this is going to happen, then it can be planned for and pruned correctly. Aeoniums reproduce just like agaves, though like most other succulents, aeoniums reproduce pups that are actually grown in between the leaves of mature rosettes, or along the stems of arboreal plants. Aeoniums also have shorter life cycles, which means you can enjoy aeonium blooms much more frequently than those of the century plant.

A few weeks after that the largest leaves have been completely blocked from the sun by new leaves.

 When growing aeoniums it is important to let the plant expand through new rosettes and offshoots. One rosette may bloom then die, but you'll already have a larger body of plant that will continue to thrive. A dead aeonium must be removed from the living plants around/attached to it. With arboreal (tree-like) aeoniums, the dead bloom is removed and the stem trimmed of the now elongated rosette. DO NOT remove the entire stem! It is very likely that your aeonium will grow new offshoots from the bare stem.

Miniscule rosettes are blooming from "eyes" where the stem formerly had a leaf in this aeonium cyclops.

The aeonium cyclops before blooming.

An aeonium cyclops in bloom.


Aeonium blooms are cone-shaped structures made of tiny yellow flowers. I must admit, I was rather dismayed to find my aeonium blooming, and the stages in between preparing to flower and the actual bloom leave the plant looking like a phallic symbol from a Cronenberg film! In fact, I have no photos of that stage, as I avoided looking at my plant for awhile. I'm not a prude, but it was... gross. Now that I'm prepared for the weirdness, I'm waiting for the remaining largest rosette to bloom.

An adult aeonium of the same species as the plant in the first two photos.

Close-up of the center of the adult aeonium.

A new rosette growing between leaves near the base of the parent plant.

Two pups growing at the base of the larger adult plant.

  I cut two pups off of this aeonium, though they wouldn't root for weeks! They're both still alive, and finally rooted after what might be a month. Both severed pups withered a bit, closed up, and turned yellow-green. As can be seen in the below photo, the leaves are going green again, indicating the plant has finally set out some roots and reached water. I don't plan on removed the two remaining pups; I'm curious to see how the plant will change as they expand and reproduce themselves.

One of four pups finally rooted and growing again.

  Aeoniums look more plant-like to me than some other succulents. They are also more susceptible to damage. Scratches on leaves can scab over, and snails adore these plants! This damage is apparent in these variegated baby aeoniums. Water sitting on the plant can burn it, and create patterns of dots as you can see in the below image.

  These particular plants were much less pink and yellow and very green when removed from their packaging. I kept them in the shade before planting them, and it's been fascinating watching their colors grow in! These are looking like they might be aeonium "Kiwi" plants, as they are remaining fairly low to the grow and are already reproducing. The tenacious plants are growing despite damage. Pink and green are my favorite colors, and like several other succulents, this aeonium bursts with the colors!

  I'm growing one more aeonium, though I have no idea what type it is. It forms a small shrub and the long, green rosette leaves are slightly hairy and sticky. It came without a proper label, and I still haven't found an adequate description of it in any of my books or on the internet. Its growth has been rather explosive, and I'm curious to see if it grows taller or just spreads out.

                                 

Some lovely pictures of aeonium cyclops:

Morning dew rests inside this rosette. Smaller plants do not tolerate dew as well as this larger plant can.

Close up of the little yellow flowers

A canopy of brilliant yellow.

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.