Agave 'Blue Glow': Full of Surprises

I've grown a lot of 'Blue Glow' Agaves.  They're generally regarded as solitary plants, which means they don't usually produce pups or offsets.  To my recollection, I've previously had only one produce a pup after a lengthy confinement in a small pot.  Like most agaves, 'Blue Glow' is deemed to be monocarpic, which means it produces a single bloom stalk and subsequently dies.  I've had other agaves follow that routine but I'd never had a 'Blue Glow' bloom until 2023.  And even then, it defied its reputation by not dying.  I wasn't entirely surprised by this as a neighbor's plant also continued to live on after it'd bloomed as I described here in a 2022 post.  As mine didn't look too bad after that initial bloom stalk was removed, I left it in place and, in December 2024, it began to develop two more bloom stalks.  When those flopped over a few months ago, I harvested a handful of bulbils from the dying stalks and we cut them down.  By this time, summer was upon us and I didn't want to ask my husband for help in removing the plant so I left it in place until we had a brief stretch of cooler temperatures last weekend.  My husband did the lion's share of the work in removing it, getting stabbed from multiple directions in the process.

Photo of the agave in question in July.  Note the pups popping out from various angles.  I complicated the removal process by asking my husband to preserve those intact to the extent possible so I could try harvesting them.

My husband tackled the plant from below using an electrical saw, leaving the upper portion largely intact   

I initially couldn't get a grip on the individual pups to pull them apart from the larger clump and I almost gave up of the idea of harvesting them.  However, once I started twisting each pup's rosette in circles, one after another finally broke away.  I didn't retrieve all of them but I collected five good-sized rosettes that way.

The largest of the harvested rosettes is shown on the left and the smaller ones are shown on the right.  All had at least some attached roots.

I gave them a couple of days to dry out before I cleaned them up.

I cleaned them up around the base, removing dried and damaged leaves and giving the stems cleaner cuts.  This is what they looked like afterwards.  Many of the leaves were wavy, presumably because they grew cramped by the leaves of the mother plant.

I subsequently potted them up.

I lined up the pots in a mostly shady spot near my lath house for the time being

Closeups on the individual rosettes, shown clockwise from the largest to the smallest.  All are larger than most of the 'Blue Glow' Agaves I've seen at local garden centers in one-gallon pots for $30 to $35.

I'll give them time to establish healthy roots in the pots before deciding what to do with them.  Assuming they survive this transition, I may plant two or three elsewhere in my garden and give the others away.  I've already promised myself to give the plants a greater amount of space if I plant them out.  As their parent plant turned out to be a clumper rather than a solitary specimen, they may also require greater space as they mature.  I'm not yet sure what I'll do with the empty spots I have in the south-side succulent bed.  I'd originally planned to put the 'Sun Glow' Agave I put aside several months ago into the spot vacated by the 'Blue Glow' we've now removed but I'm not sure I want it so close to the mature plants I still have there.

The empty spot is backed by a Metrosideros 'Springfire', which is getting bigger every year, and surrounded by 2 other 'Blue Glows' with an Agave ovatifolia 'Vanzie' and an Agave 'Mediopicta Alba' nearby.  There's also another group of 3 'Blue Glows' just outside the frame of this photo on the right. 

I may use smaller succulents or even a small-flowered Pelargonium in the empty spot for a softer touch.  When the other agaves bloom and require removal, my husband would certainly appreciate room to maneuver when "we" tackle that chore.

Interestingly, although most online sources still declare that 'Blue Glow' Agaves are solitary plants, there are some that state otherwise.  The most comprehensive discussion I've found so far is one posted on Flora Grubb's site, which you can find here.  In short, Grubb contends that 'Blue Glow' Agaves remain solitary only until they bloom.

This is a wrap for my posts this week.  We're looking at a hot and sticky Florida-like weekend following a brief tropical storm's passage through here in the wee hours of Thursday morning.  Forecasts had called for a quarter of an inch of rain in my location but we got just 0.03/inch; however, the humidity level has soared.  High winds also took out over half the 'Benary's Giant Wine' Zinnias in my cutting garden, which was a surprise as those plants and flowers had looked indestructible but perhaps their sheer height was the issue.  Oh well, Mother Nature is nothing if not unpredictable. 

Have a good weekend.  My recommendation: limit your news consumption.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party