What a great visual treat this thread is, featuring very well grown and lovely examples of fairly uncommon agave cultivars.
I don't see much point in duplicating plants already depicted, but here are a couple I didn't see posted yet.
Agave guiengola Medio Picta
This is a brand new plant for me, a type I've been seeking for years. While it might not look like much yet, I believe it to be an actual A. parryi Trucata Medio Picta - very hard to find apparently, and often mistaken or confused with the A. parryi Huatchucensis "Excelsior" (Medio Picta), which are considerably easier to find. Leaf shape and characteristics are completely different.
- 2015 09 17 A parryi Truncata Medio Picta.JPG (144.71 KiB) Viewed 2474 times
Iain, aside from what's been recommended already, I recommend the A. applanata "Cream Spike", not hard to find, and very beautiful once larger and grown hard (full sun). Grown in insufficient light, the form is less compact, and the variegation more white. Grown in sun, the form is very compact, and the white edges turn a gorgeous yellow, as can be seen in an earlier post on this thread (Diane's plant). They're not expensive budget-busters either...
no, not a step ladder Tina. Being rather short of stature, I have a small step stool, so I stood on that, and as my camera has a swivel screen, I could hold it above my head while checking the view on the screen! The staging is 33" I think, and really too wide for my comfort. Lifting the larger plants is undertaken with great trepidation, I try not to do it very often!
, do you provide any special lighting conditions to maintain the variegation, or would you say that what some of us seem to experience as lack of stability in the variegation is clone-dependent? Any insight you are willing to share would be appreciated.