They are great drought tolerant plants, but, they get BIG. They make great specimens in Rock Gardens or large planters and do not need a whole lot of water, the one's here are quite cold tolerant also.
Anyone using Cactus/Century Plants as Landscaping?
We have a couple variegated Agave americana in steep parts of the yard. We have some regular colored ones in pots, too, and that keeps them smaller. Here is one on the edge of the pond.
And when the pond was new...
Oh Kelli, what a wonderful yard.. I love your pond. It looks so green. I have several of the Agaves also, and will take photos of them.. I did make a big mistake last year and sprinkled poppies and calendula around the area so now, all the poppie plants and calendula are taller than the AGaves.. Have to wait till they bloom and dry up to take photos.. This rain we got just gave them the boost they needed to get up and get going.
Here is an old picture of the century plant on the front slope. It's just about in the center of the picture. Front and center is a hesperaloe. That thing on the far left belongs to the neighbors. We don't know what it is except that it isn't a yucca or agave.
I took a better (hopefully) picture last week and I'll post it after I get the film developed.
Gourd:
I have quite a few in my front yard...they multiply like crazy!
Gourd, are they plants or seeds ? I love to try them...I 'll be the first gardner overhere hihi...My zone is edge 8/9 and if Kaufmann can grow them, I have a good chance it 'll work. But if you have plants, it 'll be difficult to send I guess. I find them looking very pretty.
Kelli, your pond looks fantastic !
As promised, here is a more recent agave picture. Not too exciting, but here goes. You can also see the cactus.
Kelli: Very nice! I'd like to have a striped-variegated one someday.
Kelli, what are the orange flowering plants in front ? Pretty also.
Kaufmann...I see you live in zone 8B..how are the agaves doing in your garden? We have mild but wet winters here...I like to try them in my very sunny, sheltered and summer dry garden. You think it 'll work ?
I don't know how they would do with wet feet during the winter. We get rain, and this year we got a good bit, but were on a limestone ledge (all of this part of Texas is), and its very well drained. Over Thanksgiving we had a couple of nights in the 20's, and that burnt their tips, but they survived okay. You never know until you try, right?
Hi Saya, mine haven't bloomed yet, so have not seen the seed. Here is a picture of some that are small variegated Century Agaves. Will try to take photos of the blue Century Agaves tomorrow. These are newly planted (probably 5 months ago).
Kaufmann, I have some variegated pups coming up if you would like some, they may be small at first but they will grow very fast.
These are rescue Cactus that were being torn down and I brought some home and am trying to get all the potted stuff I have into the ground before the heat starts up here, I don't know their names (call them Mickey Mouse Cactus) but they are not.
Saya, you can always grow them in containers and wheel them near a wall when the rains come. Just make sure they have good drainiage and they should be fine. I am also in zone 8/9 we don't get the rain that I wish we would, but I water them often sometimes. They make great speciman plants too.
Gourd: They are Opuntia of some variety. There are a bunch of them... I like your edging/curbing. Did you make it? Cool looking! Gretchen
http://plantsdatabase.com/go/56266/index.html
Thanks all..I 'll try to grow them, just try..you 're wright Kaufmann. Maybe I can find one overhere sold as a houseplant. To keep them in a pot is a good idea to try. I can always plant them out in full ground.
Gourd ...when your plant has seeds...sure I love to have some.
The orange flowers are Chasmanthe bicolor. They do quite well on natural rainfall. I should have some seeds available this summer.
Desert Tropicals says that Agave americana is hardy to 18 degrees F. http://www.desert-tropicals.com/Plants/Agavaceae/Agave_americana.html Out where I used to live, there was a big century plant that had escaped into the wild. One night we had a big freeze and it got down to at least 21F. It killed the eucalyptus and gazanias outside my apartment but it didn't kill the century plant.
It seems that Agave americana can take some rainy weather, at least part of the year. We had ours during the last El Nino, when we got 40 inches of rain over the winter and spring. We lost a Yucca whipplei, but the agaves were o.k.
This message was edited Apr 5, 2004 8:14 AM
Saya, mine hasn't bloomed yet, but will save seeds when it does. Wish I could send you some pups..
This one I picked up yesterday.. just love it..
Gourd: It could be many years before it blooms. And, the mother plant will die afterwards. They generally send up lots of pups...mine are 7 years old, very healthy, and have never bloomed. Gretchen
Gretchen, I didn't see where you asked about the curbing till now, sorry. We had that done by some guy with a machine that you roll a llittle at a time, while another guy is either straightening the curbing or curving it, filling it, and making sure it stays in place. I think it was something like 2.50 a foot or so and we did land up doing the whole yard inside the fence of the inside portion of the yard.. Our yard is broken off into sections and fenced off also, a little over two acres, so we had to break it up to be able to keep up with just certain areas, we still have one full acre of nothing but weeds.. thinking of putting some bamboo back there and maybe some of those large agaves. If there was water back there, we could put in some trees. It is still a work in progress.
You can see some of the curbing here in this photo, this is part of the front area.
You have a beautiful piece of property! Thanks for the explanation of the curbing. I really like it -- its very unusual and I like the clean consistancy of it. Quite the opposite of my crazy place though LOL!