you are very brave. Well done. Thank you I have a question on Agave. THere are ome types of Agave without white stripes just dark green. Are they Agave americana or any other agave sp?
The Agave americana is normally not striped, so your Agave is a striped A. americana variant... ('Variegata')
Most of the Agave that are native to Ecuador, and the others we grow ornamentally, are solid green. There are about 300 species of it, with three really common useful ones. Lila's absolutely right, that striped one is A. americana 'Variegata'. Your Agave needs less water and more sunshine; having in the same bed with roses and other "water-daily" plants is not helping it. It's still quite small so you should be able to move it to another bed where you can water it once a week or so. That will help it to be less droopy. Here in Ecuador when I was living in the desert, I watered my Agaves twice a month, and they were very healthy.
Hi, Just a few warnings..... some varities of Agave will sucker out in large quantities and the suckers can sprout a reasonable distance from the original plant. I've had them come up to 1.5m away from parent plant on a couple of varities. My A. americana like yours is still in a pot and has already sent off several suckers at a reasonably young age. So be wary of where you do plant them. Also, not that I'm trying to scare you away but the flower spike will reach 3m+(see attached photo of A. desmetiana variegated in flower), which, if seed does not set will generally produce several hundred tiny bulbils to continue the cycle. The parent plant then dies. This leads to my next warning, WEAR LONG SLEEVES AND PANTS WHEN EXPOSED TO SAP FROM THIS PLANT!!!!! Not such a drama when small but a friend used a chainsaw @ work to remove a large clump and his legs were covered in blisters from the spray of sap for days later. When I removed mine after flowering using a machete my arms were covered with sap and for the next 3-4 days stung and blistered. I deal with Euphorbia and other irritable plants regularly but this was the most uncomfortable experience I have recieved from interacting with my plants. So, just keep these few things in mind and enjoy! :}
Thank you everybody for the advices and your materials. Here in Albania (Europe) where I live this plants are growing as docorative plants (special in my town), so they do not have flowers. ON the southern part where there is warmer and more there are more long sunny days Agave is growing in wildersness. Actually they are not native in Albania. They are introduced on the years of "60-ies and thta is why we do not know so much about them. Sometimes we mix them with Aloe sp which looks like hte same and we we both call them gjembac (thorner). We didn't know what they ar eused for until we saw on TV the Venezueliean Soup Opera Love & Tequila. There are scenaries of Agave farms where they produce tequila. Since this film was broadcasting Albanians used to have more respct for this flower, Agave.
