Hello Everyone, this was my moms plant which lived in the bay. Five years ago I brought it to my home, the Central Valley in California. It was in a pot until recently I put in the ground (two years maybe). What’s its name? And should I transplant it to a bigger hole? thanks for any suggestions or help :) Rachel
Hi there, You definitely have an Agave on your hands. It looks to me like Agave attenuata, which is backed up by the fact that A. attenuata is a commonly cultivated plant in California. However, I cannot say with 100% certainty!
If you see other succulent plants growing well around you there in what appears to be the same existing soil as yours then plant your succulent plants in that, without modification. Otherwise you may have to give them a special bed of coarser soil, with better aeration and internal drainage. But if that dark, mostly organic material underneath your agave indicates you have mixed a potting or planting mix into the planting hole backfill for this plant - or entirely replaced the soil that came out of the hole with this other stuff - that was not a good idea. Even if you planted in the existing soil, without modification and merely put the planting/potting mix on top for succulents it is better to mulch with a stone product rather than an organic one. Also your agave is too close to the lawn and other plants around it, as it will get much bigger in time than it is now.
I would like to add, given that you are in the central valley of CA I don't think any soil modification is needed at your site, just be sure not to overwater, and I agree that suing potting soil in the ground is best avoided. These types of Agave (if it is A. attenuata) tend to do very well in that climate. I also don't think this particular species of Agave will get much larger than it is (it's a very different story for some other Agaves such as Agave americana or Agave vilmoriniana, which can be the size of a small car). I believe it will stay a good two or three feet across (until it eventually decides to flower and die, the inflorescence may be 9 feet tall. But that shouldn't happen for many years). Whether or not you should put it into another site is up to you. Note that when you are cutting your grass you may damage the lower leaves of the plant (which isn't a big deal but may be ugly). What will inevitably happen, if the plant is well taken care of, is that it will have tons of babies and create a thicket. These babies can easily be removed and propagated to other sites. So, the plant itself probably won't get much larger, but it may have tons of babies creating a thicket.
