Agave blue flame soon to flower

[Tracy]

I have been growing this particular species for over a decade with all my current plants coming as pup cuttings from one of the original plants I had in my Carlsbad garden.  This is the first that will actually bloom though.  The plants start growing upright, but eventually will "crawl" forward out of the spot you planted them.  The ones in my Carlsbad garden grew over a patio or into more valued plants so I would always remove them, starting over with the remaining prolific pups popping off the base.  As a result none ever reached maturity before I "sacrificed" them.  So this is a first, and good timing as it crawls into the street along the side of my house.  There are more pups at this one's base, so once it's done flowering I won't wait for it to shrivel and die, I'll just lop it off.  I'm interested to see what it's inflorescence ultimate size and shape will be in that it is a hybrid agave.  This is just the start of the emerging flower stalk but with the color striping I thought it worth sharing even at this early stage.  Anyone else have one of these flower in the past?

[Funkthulhu]

Pick a spot, take a shot, every day.  Google will stitch them into an animation, or pick another program to do the same.  

Looking forward to seeing what this looks like as it grows! 

[Merlyn]

I just managed to get a small offset from one of the Agaveville admins, so mine is only a kinda scraggly 10" diameter at the moment.  I'm not sure if the Blue Flame produces seed or bulbils, it's Shawii x Attenuata.  The Attenuata produce bulbils, but I think Shawii only produce seeds...maybe.  That'll be interesting to see, especially if you end up with hundreds of baby Blue Flames!  

[Tracy]

2 hours ago, Merlyn2220 said:

I just managed to get a small offset from one of the Agaveville admins, so mine is only a kinda scraggly 10" diameter at the moment.  I'm not sure if the Blue Flame produces seed or bulbils, it's Shawii x Attenuata.  The Attenuata produce bulbils, but I think Shawii only produce seeds...maybe.  That'll be interesting to see, especially if you end up with hundreds of baby Blue Flames!  

It is such a vigorous pup producer that seeds or bulbils aren't really needed.  I have them planted along a section about 25' long with a few other smaller agave species and Aloes.

[Merlyn]

I was actually thinking the other way...if you were having to remove a bunch now...just wait until you get hundreds of bulbils!   

The Blue Flame sounds a lot like my regular green Weberi.  I bought 5 off of eBay last summer and now have about 40!

[Tracy]

Here are some updated shots which are 8 days apart.  The first shot and the close up were the earlier photos.

[Tracy]

Interesting yellow flowers opening now.

[NOT A TA]

That looks great! I've only had one green Agave bloom after I'd had it about 10 years. I've got some big blue Agave I'd really like to see flower but they're only between 15-20 years old. They seem to need to be very old here to flower.

[Tracy]

As the inflorescence ages on this hybrid it is starting to get the bend from the Agave attenuata parent.  Not the full loop yet, but definitely not as erect as before.  Seeds are falling but no bulbils showing.

[Tracy]

The arc is almost complete, both figuratively and visually.  The garbage truck has to cut the corner tight to get onto my narrow street so he will likely bash the tip tomorrow morning as it now hangs right into his path.  It is interesting to see that it has developed the full arching inflorescence expected of it's "Foxtail" Agave attenuata parent in the end.

[Tracy]

On 10/14/2019 at 8:11 AM, Merlyn2220 said:

The Attenuata produce bulbils, but I think Shawii only produce seeds...maybe.  That'll be interesting to see, especially if you end up with hundreds of baby Blue Flames!  

It was a long haul, but we are now at the final stage before removal.  It has reached the tipping point so to speak.  No bulbils only seed.  Plenty of new offsets though which I can easily remove and grow in other spots if I need.

[Merlyn]

That's a really impressive cluster you've got there!  I got a Blue Flame from Spination over on Agaveville (if I remember correctly) and it's definitely a fast grower!  I love the shape of these, the inward tip is one of my favorite parts of the shape.  There's another Mangave coming up this summer called "Praying Hands" that is a real stunner.  I haven't seen it pop up yet on a google search, but a hybridizer shared photos on the FB Agave group.  Here's the photo I saved:

[Tracy]

18 hours ago, Merlyn2220 said:

There's another Mangave coming up this summer called "Praying Hands" that is a real stunner.  I haven't seen it pop up yet on a google search, but a hybridizer shared photos on the FB Agave group.  Here's the photo I saved:

It is attractive.  Reminiscent of Agave Blue Glow, but holding it's rosette much tighter.   It does not look like one of the more user friendly Agaves though; the user friendliness is one nice thing about the Blue Flame.

[Tracy]

Round 2 with another one of these adds a twist.  It is trying to push out a pair of inflorescence.  I don't know that I have seen this before with either of the parents of this hybrid, but maybe I just haven't been paying enough attention.

[Merlyn]

19 hours ago, Tracy said:

Round 2 with another one of these adds a twist.  It is trying to push out a pair of inflorescence.  I don't know that I have seen this before with either of the parents of this hybrid, but maybe I just haven't been paying enough attention.

That's really funky!  I've seen photos of some agaves pushing blooms from the pups * parent plants at the same time, but not one making a second stalk right next to the first!

Off topic question, what is the clustering palm just to the left of the stalk?  It looks sort of like an Arenga Engleri, but the fronds are narrower than the palms I have here.  It looks like one I need to add to my garden! 

[Tracy]

On 9/26/2020 at 2:38 PM, Merlyn2220 said:

It looks sort of like an Arenga Engleri, but the fronds are narrower than the palms I have here.  It looks like one I need to add to my garden! 

You are correct on your id.  I think there are some that are taller than others so it wouldn't surprise me if there are also slight variations in the leaves.  I enjoy the scent the flowers put out on it. 

[Tracy]

On 9/25/2020 at 6:59 PM, Tracy said:

Round 2 with another one of these adds a twist.  It is trying to push out a pair of inflorescence. 

An update on the double stinger on this blue flame.  One is a mini-me of the larger inflorescence.  I don't have enough experience with Agave's to know if this is really unusual for a double inflorescence or if it is relatively normal to occur on occasion.  Here are two views of the plant and inflos.

[Tracy]

The big inflorescence is starting to flower from the bottom up while the smaller one from the same plant appears a little behind in the opening of flowers.  Bees were happy to see all the flowers!

[Swolte]

Spectacular. Would these live in 8a?

[Tracy]

1 hour ago, Swolte said:

Spectacular. Would these live in 8a?

I looked it up on a prominent California wholesaler's website to see what they had to say.  According to San Marcos Growers:  Irrigate little or regularly for more vigor. Hardy to at least 25 F. The name 'Blue Flame' is both in reference to the blue in the foliage and also to the shape of the plant, which resembles a gas flame with its gracefully incurved leaf tips. This hybrid between Agave shawii (seed parent) and Agave attenuata (pollen parent) was created by Dave Verity in the early 1960's at UCLA's Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. A specimen was planted at Huntington Botanic Garden (HBG 19706) where it first flowered in 1983. It is interesting that this is a cross between the subgenus Agave and Littaea with A. shawii (subgenus Agave), adding frost hardiness to the otherwise tender A. attenuata (subgenus Littaea). The hybrid inherits Agave attenuata's smooth, spineless, flexible foliage and graceful inflorescence while it gets a terminal spine and finely serrate margins from Agave shawii - it is not as gentle as Agave attenuata but not as spiny as Agave shawii. The Huntington Botanic Garden introduced this beautiful plant through the ISI (International Succulent Introduction) program in conjunction with Pacific Horticulture's PPP (Pacific Plant Promotions) in 2005 with the designation ISI 2005-6. Our original stock plants came from Rancho Soledad Nursery. 

My original plant also came from Rancho Soledad in the mid 2000's and the rest are pups harvested from that original plant.  Duration of cold will also be a factor for you I would imagine.  Mine have never seen anything close to 25F or -3.5C so I can't be of much help with personal experience at low temps.

[Silas_Sancona]

9 minutes ago, Tracy said:

I looked it up on a prominent California wholesaler's website to see what they had to say.  According to San Marcos Growers:  Irrigate little or regularly for more vigor. Hardy to at least 25 F. The name 'Blue Flame' is both in reference to the blue in the foliage and also to the shape of the plant, which resembles a gas flame with its gracefully incurved leaf tips. This hybrid between Agave shawii (seed parent) and Agave attenuata (pollen parent) was created by Dave Verity in the early 1960's at UCLA's Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden. A specimen was planted at Huntington Botanic Garden (HBG 19706) where it first flowered in 1983. It is interesting that this is a cross between the subgenus Agave and Littaea with A. shawii (subgenus Agave), adding frost hardiness to the otherwise tender A. attenuata (subgenus Littaea). The hybrid inherits Agave attenuata's smooth, spineless, flexible foliage and graceful inflorescence while it gets a terminal spine and finely serrate margins from Agave shawii - it is not as gentle as Agave attenuata but not as spiny as Agave shawii. The Huntington Botanic Garden introduced this beautiful plant through the ISI (International Succulent Introduction) program in conjunction with Pacific Horticulture's PPP (Pacific Plant Promotions) in 2005 with the designation ISI 2005-6. Our original stock plants came from Rancho Soledad Nursery. 

My original plant also came from Rancho Soledad in the mid 2000's and the rest are pups harvested from that original plant.  Duration of cold will also be a factor for you I would imagine.  Mine have never seen anything close to 25F or -3.5C so I can't be of much help with personal experience at low temps.

Agree w/Tracy .. Thinking 23F-ish might be the coldest this particular agave could handle, likely if kept dry. ..and that's probably pushing it.  Agave shawii, the other half of this cross, grows in northern coastal Baja/ adjacent San Diego county ( where it is considered endangered ) Quite rare for any of this area to see temperatures colder than about the mid 20s.

On the other hand, another similar looking Attenuata cross, " Blue Glow " has supposedly tolerated 17F at Juniper Level Gardens ( Plant Delights ) It is crossed with Agave ocahui, which apparently can tolerate cold down to 15F or so. Wonder if any of the Agave Gurus have tried to cross Blue Flame with Blue glow yet.

[Tracy]

9 minutes ago, Silas_Sancona said:

It is crossed with Agave ocahui, which apparently can tolerate cold down to 15F or so. Wonder if any of the Agave Gurus have tried to cross Blue Flame with Blue glow yet.

Blue glow would be a very nice alternative.  You can see where the name came from looking at the leaf margins.

[Merlyn]

Attenuata is good to around 28F, and Shawii is good to about 25F.  This is per the Agaveville general hardiness page, mine haven't seen below 30F yet.  The numbers are kind of questionable, though.  They have Desmettiana at 25F, and around here anything below 30F will significantly burn them.

Tracy it appears you answered the earlier question...seeds and not bulbils, right?

[Tracy]

On 11/16/2020 at 3:10 PM, Merlyn2220 said:

Tracy it appears you answered the earlier question...seeds and not bulbils, right?

Seeds and not bulbils on the Agave blue flame hybrid, correct.  The interesting thing about blue glow is that it seems to be more cold tolerant than either of the parent plants, according to San Marcos growers (located in Santa Barbara, CA).  The other hybrid Agave blue glow did both bulbils and and seeds as I recall and is more cold tolerant than blue flame.

[Tracy]

What a difference a week can make.  It went from full blooming and upright a few days before Christmas to it's blown over status last night.  I think a combination of too big a drink of water from the rain made it heavy in the moderate onshore wind yesterday and overnight.  Well I knew I was going to chop that head out after it finished blooming, I just didn't expect to be doing it this quickly!  Not a big loss, as there were multiple pups left on the crawling trunk, ready to come out from their shaded hiding spot.