Could you help me with this plant, it is huge and a focal point in the back yard
and has developed these horrible red spots. The red spots are killing the plant. please see attached photo.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Thank you.
Victoria

Hi Victoria, welcome to ATP and hope we can help. Need more info, though!

A few more pictures, showing the whole plant and the surrounding area would help. It is in the sun or shade? Under a tree?

Do you know what kind of plant it is? From the picture it looks like it could be anything from a bromeliad to a yucca, agave or a ginger. If you have an older picture of when the plant was healthy that would be helpful, too.

Also what part of the world do you live in? Your climate conditions right now could be affecting the plant.

It looks like some sort of Scale insects, images can be seen here:
https://www.google.com/search?...

More information about scale insects and their control:

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG...

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/...

victoriana: I forgot to say We're glad you found us here at All Things Plants!

Lin

Looking at your picture again, first thing I'd do is clean up - cut off all that dead foliage and put it in a plastic bag in the trash, don't compost it! That way if it is a fungal disease or insect infestation, you won't keep the bad stuff around.

After you do that, take the hose on a warm day and hose the whole plant off thoroughly. Then inspect it with a magnifying glass, especially looking in the leaf axils, and on the undersides of the healthy leaves. Insects especially like to feed on new tender growth, not the old dead stuff. But they use the dead foliage for hiding areas. You have what looks like a nice healthy new plant right on the bottom of that picture. Check it over carefully!

I can't see jagged leaf edges in the photo but the plant does resemble Agave:

Century Plant (Agave americana subsp. americana)

Variegated Century Plant (Agave americana 'Marginata')

The little one right at the bottom of her picture has spines on the leaf edges, Lin. I'm thinking it's an Agave too.

Aha, I didn't even notice that little pup. It does indeed look to be Agave. I found this information about insects and diseases of Agave, Aloe, Cactus and Yucca: http://extension.arizona.edu/s...

Hello,

Thank you for all the quick help. Please note I have uploaded two more images.

Kind Regards
Victoria

Victoria, if you are in S. California, I'd be willing to bet your beautiful agave plant is suffering from the heavy rains you had recently followed by cold weather. IF that's the case, there's not much you can do but wait to see if it recovers. Agaves can take heat and dry a lot better than cold and wet.

Still, you do need to cut off all the dead leaves, and clean up around the base of the plant for it to dry out and begin recovery. Please post more pictures, close up, and full plant after you've cleared the dead stuff, so we can see if the red spots are on the healthy foliage as well. That could indicate a fungal infection that you could treat.

Also pot up that little pup, as a back up! Good drainage is essential for those plants, so use a coarse cactus mix for it.