This little cactus has popped up through my brick pavers. It's the second one that's come up. I pulled the first one out and stuck it in a pot, and it's qiute happy there. I know my neighbour has no cactus on her side of the fence there, so goodness knows where it's come from. Hopefully, when i pull this one out and pot it, another will pop up.
Here's the first one that popped up, on the left. The one on the right was sticking out of one of the draining holes in the bottom of a pot that someone gave me with the mother plant in it. I just pulled it off and potted it when i planted the mother plant. The path one has somewhat slimmer leaves than the one from the pot, and it's teeth are nowhere near as big or sharp.
Here they are again. I't be great if some one could give me names for them (and i don't mean Fred or George ... lol :P)
This is the mother of the little one on the right. It's about 600mm tall, and still growing.
A closer view of mum
and from above
It looks like an agave to me, dont know the species though.
Thanks Annette
I've just spent ages looking at all the agave on plant files - it's a huge family, hey!? - and couldn't see an exact match, but there were enough similarities to be quite sure it is agave, but just not what species.
Bit sad that they're mono-whatsit, and only flower once before dying. I'm pretty sure my big one is no where near 50 years old though, so i won't have to worry about it dying for a good long while yet.
Hey Kerrie,
It is a start at least we have the right plant, 50 years is pretty good for a plant though.......
Hello again kerri. I have seen lots of these agaves around. If yours is the one I am thinking of, it may grow to a very LARGE size. This common agave looks exactly like yours and has been around in gardens for ages. There is a patch of them along the road where I used to live in the Mallee (NW Vic)
The patch would have been about 25 metres long and some of the plants at least 6' across and as high. There were hordes of babies of all sizes.
I watched my cousin try to get rid of her "pretty little " plant after it had grown to over 4' wide and threatened to take over the garden bed.
They can be a real menace if they are in gardens with children because of the leaf spikes.
This is not to say there are not nice ones . There are some really lovely smaller ones that look great.
I have one of the larger growing ones that is the variegated one, growing outside where it can take over a very bare space.
I hope yours is of the smaller variety and it should be safe kept in a pot anyway but as you see they can pop up anywhere.
Good luck, Jean.
Hi all,
The commonest "escaped" Agave species - the one Jean is talking about - is Agave americana. It is often seen in variegated forms with white or yellow stripes on the leaves - I am not quite sure that that is the species you have though, as the leaves do not look quite right to me, although it is a bit hard to tell as even your "mother" plant is still quite young and small. The plant with the finer spines MAY be Agave angustifolia, but again it is far too small to tell.
My guess is that someone has had a large Agave growing nearby in the past and the stolons have run under the path and continued to grow even after the parent plant has been removed - some species can pop up offsets as far as 5 metres from the original plant although most prefer to cluster more closely. If you keep removing the offsets as they grow, eventually the stem under the path will exhaust itself and die off, but that could take quite a long time as they are VERY tough. If you really need to knock it on the head you may have to resort to applications of Round Up. You should also watch where you put the ones in pots as well as they are quite happy to run stolons out of the drainage holes of pots if you leave them in contact with the ground. I keep all of my Agaves up on bricks or place the pots on paved areas, never bare dirt.
Here is a link to the Agaves in the PlantFiles which you may find interesting: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/adv_search.php?searcher%5Bcommon%5D=&searcher%5Bfamily%5D=&searcher%5Bgenus%5D=Agave&searcher%5Bspecies%5D=&searcher%5Bcultivar%5D=&searcher%5Bhybridizer%5D=&search_prefs%5Bblank_cultivar%5D=&search_prefs%5Bsort_by%5D=genus&images_prefs=both&Search=Search
Ciao, KK.
I was told when given the agave that it would grow quite big, so i've planted it in a low traffic area under the bathroom window where it has plenty of room to spread out, and also where i'm unlikely to get bitten by it.
Ah, so the babies are called stolons ... good to know thanks KK :). Do people refer to them as pups, as well, or is that something different? I just noticed the mother plant has shot out either a double headed stolon or 2 very close together about a foot away.
Hi Kerri,
Stolons are the fat underground stems which produce offsets or 'pups' on the ends - once the offset has three or four green leaves on it, it will be capable of an independent existence and can be severed from the stolon and grown in its own. If the stolon is large and still contains a lot of energy it may well produce more offsets after the first one(s) are taken away. I really like Agaves there are so many and they have such a lovely shape and variety of colouring. Have fun with your plants,
Ciao, KK.
ah ok, gotcha. thanks :)
