Agaves: Details, Photos & Varieties

About Agaves

Among the largest of succulents, agaves are unfazed by harsh sun, high heat and lack of rain. Their statuesque, fountainlike forms lend a sculptural element to any landscape, and contrast beautifully with fine-textured ornamentals. They also make good firebreak plants and security fences.

Growing Conditions

Being indigenous to the New World (the American Southwest, Mexico and Central America), larger agaves store enough moisture to get by on rainfall alone and will thrive in nutrient-poor soils.

Although agaves like water, their roots---like those of most succulents---will rot in waterlogged soil.

With the exception of a few soft-leaved and variegated varieties, agaves want sun---the more the better in all but desert climates. Most are hardy to the mid- to high-20s F, and some go a lot lower.

Pests & Problems

Agave snout weevil is a concern.

Sharp points at leaf tips and along leaf edges can make agaves treacherous. I snip about a quarter inch from leaves' needlelike tips with garden shears.

And those scalloped patterns on an agave's leaves? There's nothing wrong with your agave. The patterns are simply "bud imprints" caused by spines and teeth pressing into the flesh of inner leaves before they unfurl.

Containers

Agaves smaller than basketballs make excellent potted plants. Small agaves---there are many exquisite ones---look good displayed one to a pot.

Pruning

When pruning a damaged leaf, keep in mind that a straight-across cut at its midsection may spoil an agave's symmetry. It's best to make two cuts that trim the leaf to a "V" that resembles the leaf's natural tip. Or cut it all the way to the trunk.

Propagation

Large agaves that pup (not all do) can be thugs. They'll grow and spread rapidly, especially when given good soil and regular irrigation.

One of the most widely grown is A. americana (century plant), because it offsets so prolifically (free plants!) and needs no care at all...until those pups start to get big and form an unruly, ever-expanding colony.

See the Resources section of this page for some great alternatives to A. americana that don't spread quite as enthusiastically.

All but a few agaves are monocarpic, meaning they bloom once and then die. This may take as many as 25 years, but it will happen.

As it completes its life cycle, a mature rosette that has graced a garden for years sends up an asparagus-like flower stalk (most, but not all, branch).

This dwarfs the plant and saps its energy until it eventually collapses and dies.

Some of the larger flower stalks are so thick and strong that they need to be cut apart with a chainsaw to remove them.

Flowers along the stalk eventually turn into miniplants (bulbils) or seed capsules from which new agaves can be grown.

Only the individual agave that flowers dies. In some cases---notably with those involving Agave americana---a litter of pups will carry on.