Beauty and transience are linked to one another in the agave
While many a flower in the garden blooms reliably every year or even several times a year, the agave is aesthetically more convincing due to the color and shape of the characteristic leaf rosette. After all, with most agave species you will need a lot of patience before you can see these plants bloom. Since it can really take a few decades for some agaves to bloom, names such as “Centennial Agave” or “Century Plant” have become commonplace. Particularly tragic: not with all, but also with many agave species, the flowering is both the climax and the end of a long life. Often the plant dies immediately after flowering, but there are also species in which this is not the case.
also read
- Does the agave produce a usable fruit in the garden?
- Hibernate the agave outside in the garden
- The agave gets yellow leaves - what to do?
The characteristic features of an agave flower
The inflorescences of the larger agaves, often up to six meters high and occasionally up to twelve meters high, consist of a very long stem and a branched flower at the top. The actual flowers are characterized by the following properties:
- zymous partial inflorescences (branched)
- short-stalked flowers
- tubular or bell-shaped perigon
- movable anthers on the stamens
Errors about the time it takes for the agave to bloom
While not all of the agaves cultivated in pots dies after flowering, not all agaves need decades to flower. You can also find agaves in specialist shops that will surprise you with an attractive flower after just a few years of care.
Tips
It is often a tragic moment for gardeners when certain agaves begin to bloom when they are about to die. You can, however, provide cuttings in good time by using the offspring that arise on the agave for propagation.
