Smaller agaves (and their hardiness)

[greatnorthernexotic]

I'm wanting to add a smaller agave to my outdoor bed and am looking for suggestions? I like the look of a. potatorum but have read conflicting reports as to its hardiness. Any tips?

[Paul in Essex]

Forget potatorum, it isn't UK hardy.

How small is small? Top of my list would be A. polianthiflora, which is very small, also good and hardy - a precocious flowerer with interesting red flowers. Things like toumeyana, toumeyana bella, schottii, parviflora are similar but not quite as nice IMO. A. lechuguilla isn't massive and is pretty tough. A. filifera isn't huge. The hybrids x gracilipes and x arizonica also. A. parryi subsp. neomexicana isn't a whopper. A. striata. There is a form of a. lophantha that has short wide leaves that is tough - sometimes see it with the cv name 'Splendida'.

The utahensis clan are small and, on paper, hardy to cold but I have never been able to overwinter any. I know that others have, which completely baffles me!

[greatnorthernexotic]

Thanks for this, Paul. Size wise I'm talking 30-40cm diameter or less. I really like the ones with tight rosettes with the wide leaves over the longer, strappy leaves.

[Herts Mike]

Eborispina and nevadensis are now on their 3rd year outdoors.

[Paul in Essex]

Thanks for this, Paul. Size wise I'm talking 30-40cm diameter or less. I really like the ones with tight rosettes with the wide leaves over the longer, strappy leaves.

There are very few, in that case. Can only suggest you get a larger growing one like one of the parryi group then remove it once it has got too big. Of course the other thing that enters the equation is that ovatifolia is a 'live fast, die young' plant so by the time the other smaller plants are getting too big the ovatifolia might have already flowered and died. Takes around 2-15 years, apparently.

If not, the 'Splendida' form of lophantha might qualify. There is a particular cultivar of Agave parryi subsp. parryi 'JC Roulston' that is cold hardy, said to be moisture tolerant and also remains pretty compact if you can possibly track one of those down from somewhere. They pop up from time to time.

[Paul in Essex]

Eborispina and nevadensis are now on their 3rd year outdoors.

... and that baffles me

[Patrick]

Yes potatorum got frost damage even here in Portugal one year. I'd go for one of the parryi like Paul says, I like neomexicana. The polianthiflora types are very small and very slow in my experience. Agave Lophantha 'Quadricolor' is a lovely plant and supposedly hardy to well below freezing, I've got lots of them but not in the ground yet. They offset like mad so you get get quite a clump or lots of plants.

[TomInTucson]

Forget potatorum, it isn't UK hardy.

How small is small? Top of my list would be A. polianthiflora, which is very small, also good and hardy - a precocious flowerer with interesting red flowers. Things like toumeyana, toumeyana bella, schottii, parviflora are similar but not quite as nice IMO. A. lechuguilla isn't massive and is pretty tough. A. filifera isn't huge. The hybrids x gracilipes and x arizonica also. A. parryi subsp. neomexicana isn't a whopper. A. striata. There is a form of a. lophantha that has short wide leaves that is tough - sometimes see it with the cv name 'Splendida'.

The utahensis clan are small and, on paper, hardy to cold but I have never been able to overwinter any. I know that others have, which completely baffles me!

The 2 Arizona natives (A. parviflora and A. toumeyana subsp. bella) also are very hardy in other nearby states of the southwestern USA. Apparently, only the larger forms of A. utahensis such as A. utahensis subsp. kaibabensis, and A. utahensis subsp. utahensis do as well under similar conditions.

[Herts Mike]

Would parviflora v flexiflora be hardy here?

[Tina]

As you are all thinking agave, are these agave toumeyana or toumeyana v.bella or something else
Available a Spalding