Hardy Tropicals UK

After many months of looking,finally got hold of this baby. Unfortunately a couple of spines got broken in transit, but I'm sure it will recover fine.

Paul

Its erm...a lovely plant Paul,

It does'nt look worse for wear having lost any.

Guess they are an acquired taste Kata!! I saw some photos of mature specimens with lovely long sqiggly spines, and they looked fantastic....I had to have one!!

Very nice Paul. All forms of A. utahensis are very slow growing even for agaves. I bet your plant is at least 5 or 6 years old. I bet you could safely overwinter it in a coldframe or a rain shelter with no extra heat ever needed. I have seedlings in their 4th year which have just come through their third winter with only protection from wet.

JoelR wrote:Very nice Paul. All forms of A. utahensis are very slow growing even for agaves. I bet your plant is at least 5 or 6 years old. I bet you could safely overwinter it in a coldframe or a rain shelter with no extra heat ever needed. I have seedlings in their 4th year which have just come through their third winter with only protection from wet.

Agree - looking at where it comes from, it gets cold in winter (-15° to -20°C over much of the area), but is desert dry.

Thanks Joel and Conifers. I am planning to keep it indoors anyway until it produces a pup (if this agave does?) as a back up. The only other agave I'm risking outdoors this year (A. Salmiana and A.Montana already out and will stay out overwinter), will be my americana medio picta alba.....I'm just waiting for some dry weather to give it a head start....

The two agaves already planted out have gone straight into gravel, even so I'm a bit worried about the salmiana as we have had rain nearly every day for a month.

Joel...have you got many planted out?

I just have a smallish A. utahensis planted out and surviving Paul. It came through winter 2010/11 without problem and started growing 2 pups last autumn which have come through the winter OK.

I lost a half decent A. filifera the winter just gone and have killed several A. americana before. I planted out a small A. parryi which is in it's 5th year from seed just the other day and more will follow as they get bigger.

UPDATE......this agave has been growing quite well given its slow nature, and unbelievably it has started to offset, but very close to the mother plant. My question is, would you risk separating the pup (when it's grown to a decent size)? I would not wish to kill the mother plant as this is my favourite agave.

Thanks, paul

leave the pup until its a fair size,if you remove it small,you wont get hardly any root on it.these are slow enough at the best of times without being hindered by stress. alternatively,leave it be,they look great as a clump