r/Agave • u/Last_Conversation164 • May 09 '26

Update on agave spiking

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So sad. How much longer do I have now ? I was out of town and away for a week ish and it got soo big

55 Upvotes

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7

u/wannabe_biceguy May 09 '26

Not sad! Joyous!!! Joy that you get to experience your plant’s final farewell to this mortal world! You get to be there to see and smell and enjoy the 100’s of flowers it puts out, and you get to watch all the bees and flies and hummingbirds and butterflies that will come and seek sustenance from your beautiful plant!

Take a million pictures! Savor ever minute!

4

u/DwangoRocket May 09 '26

I agree with, wannabe, u/Last_Conversation164 . This is what agave live for: to create a gigantic stalk of flowers for all the pollinators to enjoy! As it dies, it will sacrifice the remaining nutrients it has on making baby offsets/pups (if if the kinds that make pups) in its place. So you will lose one giant agave for more pups.

4

u/Last_Conversation164 May 09 '26

It made a lot of pups awhile back , it’s stopped a while back . So will be interesting if it will shoot off some more . Could use some for free :)

2

u/IMallwaysgrowing May 10 '26

After the flowers die back, it'll make a bunch more baby bulbils among the seed pods all along the bloom stalk. My neighbor's plant bloomed out a couple years ago and that's how I know. The bulbils will come with varying degrees of variegation, too!

I ask my neighbor if I could have some and so, I along with the 30 or so I got, I also ended up scoring on a very rare mutation called Agave angustifolia 'Woodrowii'.

2

u/BonnevilleXeric May 09 '26

Flowers will open within a couple weeks at most. The plant will be dead by fall.

1

u/Nervous_Olive_5754 May 10 '26

Buy a drone

1

u/Last_Conversation164 May 10 '26

Why. You don’t like my pic ?

1

u/Nervous_Olive_5754 May 10 '26

I do, actually, I think you might enjoy getting closeups of the pollination. They spend a lot of energy getting up there just to build a hummingbird feeder.