At play with AGAVES

Agaves are weird but alluring plant camels that are great focal plants in the garden and irresistible to the dedicated succulent collector. Editor Tanya Visser reveals why she has become such an agave junky...

I call agaves my 'blueprint of God'. The most spectacular feat of nature is the imprint of the thorns and leaf margins first visible as the soft leaves start to uncurl from the growth point and which stay on the leaves even as they mature into adult form. I can take pictures of these imprints forever and they never stop fascinating me!

There is just no denying that certain agave species and cultivars are so striking that they completely change the immediate landscape with their presence. This is a diverse genus when it comes to shapes, textures and foliage colours, such colours as dull green, steel-grey, iridescent silvery-blue and even variegated with white, cream or yellow are all thrown in.

A common characteristic of these succulents is the symmetrical rosette of succulent and fibrous leaves, which can be long, thin and grass-like, squat and finger-like, or very large, broad and heavy. Generally, the fleshy and fibrous leaves of all species end in sharp points (sometimes extremely sharp terminal spines), while those of some species also have sharp marginal teeth, making them real bully plants that have to be handled with care.

Agaves are monocarpic, which means they only flower once after which they die - this is nothing to worry about though! In some species the mother plant will feverishly produce several pups (suckers) at the base of the rosette before she pushes out a tall inflorescence with a mast-like pole topped with a spike of nectar-rich flowers. In others, a bulbil (plantlet) develops at the base of each flower that will fall off and root where it lands on the soil. Agaves are very slow-growing and can take many years to flower, hence the common name of 'century plant'- although it is more a case of between 10 and 40 years, depending on the species. They are not really prone to flowering in pots, which also inhibits those guys that grow and sucker too enthusiastically.