Do you keep the bed dry during the winter @Herts Mike?
I was visiting my mother over the holidays and checked on an A. americana which she has on her balcony for most of the year. It was swimming! Must have been swimming for the better part of the last few months with all the rain. Hasn't really been cold, apart from a few nights with light freezes, but it probably didn't freeze where the plant was (must have gotten close to it though).
Plant looked fine. I dumped out the water, then put it inside in an unheated room.
edds wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 7:50 am
I think it depends a lot on your climate and growing conditions. I keep my utahensis inside all year currently as I'm afraid they will get too wet outside regardless of pot size!
If the compost in those pots is drying off fairly quickly then I'd be tempted to go as big as I dared too as I do think we bonsai our plants too much in pots as a side effect of preventing them rotting.
Yes good point about the conditions they do dry off quicker here
Patrick. Small varied collection of North American, Mexican and Andean Cacti. Variegated Agaves and Echeveria. Developing a succulent garden in Portugal. Joined Somerset BCSS and forum in 2007.
Tina wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 1:00 pm
I think you can keep them in the same size pot but they really do appreciate fresh soil, not a full strip down but a good bit of new compost. I am slowly changing from pans to deeper pots as I'm sure they seem to grow better, maybe they get hot roots.
Utahensis are very slow but there are some slightly faster clones around , just the luck of the buy.
Interesting that you are moving to deeper pots and hot roots here definitely is an issue, I think I'll set that course too. Bigger and bigger pans is even more out of proportion to the plant than bigger deeper pots
Patrick. Small varied collection of North American, Mexican and Andean Cacti. Variegated Agaves and Echeveria. Developing a succulent garden in Portugal. Joined Somerset BCSS and forum in 2007.
Herts Mike wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 1:38 pm
I’ve had 2 utahensis growing in a bed outside for nearly 2 years now.
Which one Mike? Eborispina?
Patrick. Small varied collection of North American, Mexican and Andean Cacti. Variegated Agaves and Echeveria. Developing a succulent garden in Portugal. Joined Somerset BCSS and forum in 2007.
DesertPlant wrote: ↑Fri Jan 05, 2024 2:54 pm
Do you keep the bed dry during the winter @Herts Mike?
I was visiting my mother over the holidays and checked on an A. americana which she has on her balcony for most of the year. It was swimming! Must have been swimming for the better part of the last few months with all the rain. Hasn't really been cold, apart from a few nights with light freezes, but it probably didn't freeze where the plant was (must have gotten close to it though).
Plant looked fine. I dumped out the water, then put it inside in an unheated room.
I think it's quite hard to kill them even when you want to, either with too much or too little water. I've still got pups coming up 2 years after removing one, some of them 4 meters from the original plant site
Patrick. Small varied collection of North American, Mexican and Andean Cacti. Variegated Agaves and Echeveria. Developing a succulent garden in Portugal. Joined Somerset BCSS and forum in 2007.
Not covered - they get whatever the weather throws at them. However, the bed is stony and on a slope plus there’s a big lime tree nearby which helps keeps it dry.
Their nearest friend is actually Aloe polyphylla.
The link to this interesting new paper was posted on another forum. Would let Mangave and Polianthes be split back out from Agave by creating three new genera for the outlying Agave species. Seems to make sense, so will probably be rejected!!!
I'm waiting for POWO before I relabel anything. At the moment I think this would affect just my three mangaves. Although knowing my luck they'll update just after I label the Agave amica (or is it Polianthes tuberosa?) tubers I have on order, and possibly even the Agave bulliana (or is it Prochnyanthes mexicana? Or, looking at the schematics, Polianthes mexicana?) I'm hoping to grow from seed.
This does muck it up for anyone growing Agave x Manfreda x Polianthes hybrids as apparently the name used commercially for them, ×Hansara, is invalid as it had already been used for a complex hybrid in the grass family.
Philip P-V
Poole, Dorset
Growing South American cacti, Echinocereus, succulent bromeliads, smaller Aloeae, hardy Crassulaceae and whatever else catches my eye.
The drybed is waking up, signs of growth over the winter.
I'm chomping at the bit to the day when the shelter is dismantled for another year.
Here's a shot of Mangave Toothfairy, a Mangave cross with Agave shawii. Just look at those spines. It helps make up for the fact that I may never grow shawii myself.
