Agave colorata

This is a great Agave for those of you who don’t have room for those huge Agave americana monsters. You know, those big blue Agaves that the person down the street planted too close to the sidewalk and threatens to poke every pedestrian’s eye out! Well, these Agave colorata’s stay a cute & manageable 2-3’ wide. Cute but not cuddly! The leaves are a beautiful silver-blue with many spines along the undulating margins. They would make a nice counterpoint when planted next to softer textures like grasses. The flower stalk is quite spectacular, rising to 10’ tall with yellow-green flowers. It usually takes the plant 15 years to flower but that gives you a long time to enjoy the rosette. The rosette that blooms will die afterward but the plant lives on through the offsets that grow around it. Native to coastal northwestern Mexico, it tolerates heat and little water. Needs good drainage and would be great in a pot.

Kelly Kilpatrick-Propagator