Shaw's Agave in Flower

 My last post about the Agave was on November 9. Day by day the tip of the inflorescence continued to swell and began to open up a bit. On November 12 we went to Borrego Springs for a few days. When we returned on November 15 the inflorescence had really opened up and I could see the yellow flower buds peeking out a bit. I have to admit I was pretty excited.

After that the inflorescence continued to open up further. Yesterday, November 23, I saw flowers that were actually open for the first time. The inflorescence had assumed its full candelabra shape, and I could see the large anthers protruding out. I observed hummingbirds feeding from the flowers but I couldn't get photos of them. In fact, I had to get on a ladder to get the photos below.

It's not unusual to see an Agave blooming somewhere in the county, but they are typically non-native species such as attenuata or americana. I think my Agave is special because shawii is so seldom seen in gardens and much less often seen blooming. As the bloom continues I'll post again.

Shaw's Agave About to Flower

 People sometimes refer to Agaves as century plants, suggesting that they only bloom once every hundred years. That isn't quite accurate, but they do take a long time to bloom. I have one in my front garden that I planted around 30 years ago and it is finally ready to flower. It's a Shaw's agave which is native to northwestern Baja and just barely makes it into San Diego County. It was probably more common here in the past, but decades of agriculture and urban development have left only remnant populations at Torrey Pines and Point Loma. From Tijuana southward it becomes quite common.

The one in my garden started looking a little different in early August. The center of the rosette began looking very congested. Instead of the usual one or two new leaves coming up there was a dense cluster of smaller leaves, giving me the impression that it was going to flower. The two photos below were taken on Aug. 5, 2021, when I first noticed it.

Only three days later, an inflorescence was definitely coming up and growing rapidly.

By Aug. 13 ( five days after the previous photo) it was significantly taller. At this time it was growing about an inch in height every day.

By August 21 it had reached up into the branches of the neighboring elderberry tree. It had been growing for 16 days.

At that point I began pruning the elderberry to give the agave more room to flower. The elderberry is deciduous, so I cut it back every year. Note that the agave has many of its lower leaves trimmed back. This is because it sticks out into our guest parking space, and cars tend to hit those lower leaves. They get ratty looking so I trimmed them off.

By September 17 it looked like this. Note that the tip is starting to swell a bit.

All through the rest of September and early October the inflorescence grew little more. It seemed to have stalled at about 6 ft. in height (that's a guess because I didn't actually measure it). Around the middle of October the tip started to flare out more dramatically as seen in the next photo from October 27.

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By this time I was a little surprised that it had not flowered yet. Its growth started off so fast that I thought it would have bloomed and maybe finished by now. But in fact it still seems to have some time to go before the actual flowers come out.

When it actually begins to produce flower buds I will post new photos.