Sunday Pot Culture

Leo González has a Flickr photostream, not to mention a plant collection, that is the stuff dreams are made of. A succulent-lover's dreams...

It's everywhere I turn: Aloe marlothii. Those blooms...! I will have one someday, after I see how the little Aloe ferox does in these parts. Aloe marlothii... Aloe marlothii... 

Warm, sunny morning; cool, cloudy afternoon. I repotted some new agaves, and have the scratched hands to prove it. I watered a little. Swept — a biggie when your garden is mostly patio and you're a bit of a neat freak. Moved some pots around. Did a little post-freeze pruning/plant tidying. Took the potting bench apart looking for a spider: two black widows were hiding in the first agave I repotted, and I only caught/killed one, dammit. Anyhow, the new agaves seem happy to be able to breathe a little, and I'll post some "after" photos later in the week.

Backstory on these agaves: last month I stopped by a local business — the nice not-a-nursery-but-we-have-some-plants-for-sale-also-kittens — to look at their agaves and aloes. The plants were lined up inside the parking lot fence, no labels, no prices, and no one in the shop knew anything about them except that they were indeed for sale. After the helpful office people made a call to the shop owner and another call to the "plant guy" to get prices (small pots $5.00, big pots $10.00), I drove home with some aloes, an Agave filifera, and an Agave asperrima. Here's the asperrima, leaves rough as sandpaper [she said with asperity]:

There were three hearty plants bursting out of that pot, along with five or six pups and a mystery euphorbia. Look at those teeth! The nursery label brought back memories. Newell's was a great place, but they closed three years ago — how long were the agaves in that pot, I wonder?

Here's the filifera:

No spiders in this one — quite a few pups, though. Can't begin to describe how root bound these plants were, but agaves can be very tough, and I imagine they'll be fine. I'll pot up the pups and take them to the next CSS meeting. Both asperrima and filifera are quite cold hardy. Hardier than Aloe marlotthii, anyway, and marlothii is hardy enough for me ;~)