While we wait for Diane's mangave to flower...

[AnTTun]

I believe some (probably wholesale) nursery imported these four to EU/UK (Pineapple Express, Red Wing, Mission to Mars, Lavender Lady) and distributed them .. well pretty much everywhere. They were even available in Croatia. Let's hope same practice continues, there is a bunch of old and new hybrids awaiting home at Old Continent & Island

[Paul in Essex]

I visited a chap named Chris Grundy yesterday who is the 'Mangave King' with 48 taxa plus a couple he has raised himself. I was astonished to find I quite like them.

Possibly the most gaudy of all was this variegated monster named 'Espresso' with lines, spots, shading all going on at the same time.

This one appropriately named 'Bad Hair Day'

[edds]

I was sent a picture of some Mangave in stock in Morrisons - £8 each. One was Blazing Saddles but couldn't make out the other's name.

[Colin Walker]

I visited a chap named Chris Grundy yesterday who is the 'Mangave King' with 48 taxa plus a couple he has raised himself. I was astonished to find I quite like them.

Possibly the most gaudy of all was this variegated monster named 'Espresso' with lines, spots, shading all going on at the same time.

IMG_20220619_151929.jpg

This one appropriately named 'Bad Hair Day'

IMG_20220619_130814.jpg

Wow Paul, I've never seen 'Bad Hair Day' before, but I won't be giving that precious GH space.

[Paul in Essex]

Wow Paul, I've never seen 'Bad Hair Day' before, but I won't be giving that precious GH space.

I can imagine Presidentially planted in a tall slim ceramic pot it would look rather splendid, cascading downwards.

[Stuart]

I had 'Expresso' for a few years, came from Plant Delights, it had the deciduous feature that Manfredas have but Agaves don't. Each year over the winter the leaves died off and it looked to have died. Each spring it came back into leaf except for one year - when it didn't.

Stuart

[Colin Walker]

Wow Paul, I've never seen 'Bad Hair Day' before, but I won't be giving that precious GH space.

I can imagine Presidentially planted in a tall slim ceramic pot it would look rather splendid, cascading downwards.

Paul, even ex Presidents have high standards to maintain, so I can't be seen having 'Bad Hair Days'.

[Colin Walker]

I had 'Expresso' for a few years, came from Plant Delights, it had the deciduous feature that Manfredas have but Agaves don't. Each year over the winter the leaves died off and it looked to have died. Each spring it came back into leaf except for one year - when it didn't.

Stuart

Last winter I had a couple of manfredas that just didn't return from dormancy after the winter. Sad, but these things happen. So, true manfredas, of which there are around 40 spp., aren't commonly cultivated for obvious reasons. This I think is partly why John didn't include these in his agave picture book.

[Stuart]

My photo of 'Expresso' made it into John's Agave book along with quite a few photos of the 'pretty ones' at the back, maybe I should have included a photo of the pot in winter as a contrast.

Stuart

[Colin Walker]

My photo of 'Expresso' made it into John's Agave book along with quite a few photos of the 'pretty ones' at the back, maybe I should have included a photo of the pot in winter as a contrast.

Stuart

That's great Stuart, but my point was that John deliberately omitted all the true manfredas from his book, as opposed to 'Espresso' which is a mangave. I see he also used your pic of 'Bloodspot'. So in total there are two mangaves but NO manfredas.