I'm going to make everyone's photos of their agaves look really good here. Mine doesn't look great. I guess it might not even be an agave, but I think that's what it is. I collected an offset from a pile of plants that a house down the street from my brother where they had used a front-end loader to scrape it out of the corner of their lot. They were waiting to be hauled off via the dumpster. I am wary of handling spines and things that puncture me and felt like I probably wouldn't be able to keep the weeds from growing up in it, so I took the pup and planted at the deer camp down in the pasture. It's in an old rear tractor tire. At the time it seemed a good idea and location.
But what eats the agaves? It was repeatedly pulled up and chewed on. I've never caught the cattle doing it, but they could be. I just kept replanting it in the same spot and it finally latched on, but it still gets chewed on by something. Or maybe more than one critter. It also didn't like the 0F temp this winter, but it did survive. Sad thing, isn't it?
The thing is, sad as it looks, it's been making pups for the last couple of years. I counted ten today. Some smaller, some larger. They are escaping the boundaries of the tire. I'm considering detaching one and bringing it to the house and putting it in a container. I know the plant can get large. The original plant hoisted up by the front-end loader was probably 4' tall and at least an equal spread. Maybe a bit more. I know it can make lots and lots of offsets. I don't know how many there were, but it made for big pile and I chose one that was about 10-12" in diameter to rescue. I really do like how they look, but I'm still wary. I'm afraid it will need some cold protection in a container. But I probably won't have the chewing issue. Which may just mean it's going to stab me every chance it gets. Here are some of the pups.
