one agave, eight ways (december bloom day)

Agave attenuata spike emerging from plant

Agave attenuata spike middle range

For Decem­ber 15’s Gar­den Blog­gers Bloom Day I’m try­ing some­thing new. Instead of show­ing you all the almost ever-blooming things in the gar­den I’m high­light­ing a sin­gle plant, the fox­tail agave (Agave atten­u­ata) that’s finally bloom­ing after a decade and a half in the ground. I posted before on how the mon­ster bloom spike has col­lided with some some nearby plants. Over the week­end the thou­sands of buds on the spike began to open.

Agave attenuata spike with flowers emerging from plant

Agave attenuata stalk as seen from below

In homage to artists who take one sub­ject and try to make it inter­est­ing in mul­ti­ple ways, here are some of the first pho­tos of the plant in bloom. I’m not sure which is my favorite photo so far. Maybe the fourth? Maybe the fifth?

Still, it’s hard to begin to do jus­tice to an awe­some plant.

Agave attenuata colliding with Aloe beharensis 2

Agave attenuata flowers closeup 2

Agave attenuata flowers and buds

Agave attenuata flowers closeup

Sphaeralcea ambigua

Eriogonum arborescens new flowers closeup

A few other things are bloom­ing, but it’s Decem­ber and the pick­ings are slim: a cou­ple of Cal­i­for­nia natives, some late-season blooms on Santa Cruz Island buck­wheat (Eri­o­gonum arborescens) and first-of-the-season blooms on the desert mal­low (Sphaer­al­cea ambigua).

Oxalis purpurea before opening

Oxalis pur­purea, early in the morn­ing, before it’s fully expanded…

Leonotis leonurus

Leono­tis leonorus com­ing back into bloom…

Senecio cylindricus flowers

Senecia articulata flowers

Senecio mandraliscae in bloom

When so lit­tle is in flower, you might pay atten­tion to some of the less sig­nif­i­cant flow­ers on plants that are grown pri­mar­ily for their foliage and struc­ture. These three senecio species would only win “nice per­son­al­ity” in a flo­ral beauty pageant (Senecio cylin­dri­cus, S. artic­u­la­tus, S. man­dralis­cae).

In fact, the agave I showed ear­lier is a plant that’s most often used for its ter­rific archi­tec­tural struc­ture, in part because it flow­ers so infre­quently. But when that one blooms, there’s no ignor­ing it.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gar­dens for host­ing Bloom Day!

December 14 2009 09:48 pm | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: • •

23 Responses to “one agave, eight ways (december bloom day)”

  1. ryan on 15 Dec 2009 at 12:21 am #

    Very cool. I’d say an agave mer­its at least eight pho­tos. It has fif­teen years of bloom days to make up for…

  2. Darla on 15 Dec 2009 at 3:48 am #

    That fox­tail is amazing!

  3. Helen at Toronto Gardens on 15 Dec 2009 at 4:46 am #

    Wow. [But imag­ine that said on one long, slow expres­sion of breath]

  4. Town Mouse on 15 Dec 2009 at 7:27 am #

    Wow! That’s one amaz­ing plant! I’d love to have one in my neighbor’s garden…

    Happy bloom day!

  5. dan on 15 Dec 2009 at 8:25 am #

    What a strik­ing bloom!

  6. jodi (bloomingwriter) on 15 Dec 2009 at 9:02 am #

    Take com­fort in know­ing that even if there’s not much bloom­ing in your gar­den, any­thing is more than what’s bloom­ing out­doors in this Nova Sco­tia gar­den! Love the agave flower shots.

  7. Meredith on 15 Dec 2009 at 9:50 am #

    It’s def­i­nitely num­ber 3 for my favorite shot. Num­ber 7 is great, too. That bloom spike is mag­nif­i­cent, and I’m glad you showed it from all dif­fer­ent angles, since I’ve never seen any­thing like it live.

  8. Stevie on 15 Dec 2009 at 10:03 am #

    I LOVE the focus on one plant — you really took some stun­ning pho­tos of the agave. Wow.

  9. Susie on 15 Dec 2009 at 11:32 am #

    Looks great…good idea to take shots from dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives, with a plant that size it’s easy to do.…I love the closeups!

  10. andrea on 15 Dec 2009 at 12:43 pm #

    yes, the fox­tail agave is strik­ing in its struc­ture AND color vari­a­tions — an inspir­ing and refresh­ing look of the tra­di­tional hol­i­day color scheme, don’t you think?

  11. Carol on 15 Dec 2009 at 2:43 pm #

    Utterly exotic and beau­ti­ful. Gaga over your Agave!

  12. Amy F on 16 Dec 2009 at 6:31 am #

    Gor­geous pho­tos of the agave. The fourth is my favorite, but I love the way they work all together to give you a sense of the plant. So, just 15 years till bloom, eh?

  13. Brad B on 16 Dec 2009 at 8:40 am #

    #4 and #5 are great pho­tos. I also really like #7. And the oxalis bloom unfurl­ing is awe­some. I posted 4 pics of the same plant on my bloom day post, mainly because I couldn’t decide which looked best and they showed the dif­fer­ent views of the plant. I like your idea of focus­ing on one plant. You should think about doing it again in the future. You take great pics.

  14. Lynn on 16 Dec 2009 at 6:26 pm #

    What a great approach in honor of the late-coming agave. I think 4 & 5 are my faves, too, and I really like see­ing the close-up of the sin­gle bloom. “ever-blooming” plants…sigh.

  15. Joco on 17 Dec 2009 at 7:29 am #

    Hiya James,

    It is snow­ing so I am stay­ing indoors doing a belated GBBD round.
    That Agave is cer­tainly majes­tic, but I find the unfurl­ing oxalis very endearing.I won­der of the exotic cut-flower we can buy over here, Lisianthus, is in the same family.Your Christ­mas Card is HERE

  16. leavesnbloom on 17 Dec 2009 at 7:53 am #

    Photo num­ber 3 for me! that agave is amaz­ing. Loved look­ing at the rest of your blooms.….….… never heard of a few of those plants before.

  17. Pam/Digging on 17 Dec 2009 at 8:20 pm #

    Now that’s what I’m talk­ing about! Great bloom for Bloom Day.

  18. steve on 18 Dec 2009 at 8:15 am #

    LOL, James. Had to laugh at the “nice per­son­al­ity” pic­ture for our unspec­tac­u­lar lit­tle plant. Man, the “fox­tail” Agave is well named. What a stun­ning bloom and your pic­tures are sim­ply gorgeous.

  19. rebecca sweet on 20 Dec 2009 at 7:54 am #

    What a great idea to focus Gar­den Blogger’s Bloom Day on such a fan­tas­tic plant — if I had a plant like that grow­ing in my gar­den, I’d want to high­light it as well…thanks for the beau­ti­ful photos!

  20. lostlandscape on 22 Dec 2009 at 7:49 pm #

    Thanks for all your com­ments, every­one! I really enjoy tak­ing one thing and try­ing to make it inter­est­ing as many ways as possible–think of North­ern Europe and the potato! (Hmmm…does that make the agave the equiv­a­lent of my potato?) For those of you who are blog­gers, I’ve had a great time vis­it­ing your them recently, whether to see your bloom­day posts or the other things going on in your gar­dens and lives. Carol has done a great ser­vice, giv­ing us this great way to connect.

  21. Greg on 31 Dec 2009 at 4:44 am #

    Wow, I’ve been away too long…and obvi­ously, the pun­ish­ment is miss­ing great pho­tos like these. That agave is really quite some­thing to see. Thanks for all these great shots.

  22. [ Lost in the Landscape ] » agave update on 31 Dec 2009 at 6:34 am #

    […] posts on this plant: One agave, eight ways (Decem­ber Bloom Day) When plants col­lide bookmark, […]

  23. [ Lost in the Landscape ] » echiums! on 03 Jun 2010 at 6:32 am #

    […] for my prima donna plants to finally decide to bloom. First it was the first bloom for me of the Agave atten­u­ata over the win­ter. Now it’s this […]

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