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Aloe purple flush is my favourite plant in the garden this week

August 22, 2014, 2:20 pm
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It was going to be another plant, photos taken all ready and then in the green house this evening the aloe purple flush was glowing.  It has been shouting for attention over the last few weeks and just keeps getting better. It seemed cruel to keep it waiting any longer. Sadly it is not one I know much about at all, if anyone reading this knows anything about it please comment as I would love to know more.


The photos don't do the colour justice, for part of the year is a great purple. Not the hint of purple some plants do, but full on purple.  This year for some reason instead of going back to green it has held the colour since spring.


The other thing that makes the plant stand out are the teeth along the leaf edge. There is a fine line of teeth along the edge, often these are doubles. They are bright red and look surprisingly good against the purple.  The leaves themselves are quite thick and stand out proud to the plant. The whole plant has a good robust look to it.


Sadly it is not a big offsetter, mine has produced one offset in 5 years, which could explain why you rarely see it for sale. Give the lack of spares I haven't test its hardiness yet and it is brought inside over winter. I am guessing it wont be at all hardy.

So there there you have aloe purple flush, my favourite plant this week, if you see one snap it up, you may not find it again.  

To see other peoples selection head over to Danger Garden blog to see what Loree and others have selected.
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Things not going according to plan with aloe ramosissima

August 24, 2014, 1:42 pm
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A small branching aloe for people without space for the larger tree aloes. Although small is a relative term, this is not a dwarf aloe, it can get big. It first made the wants list having seen a lovely one at Kew Gardens.


You know that "small" term, it is not a big plant it is only about 1.5m across.  Having seen Kew's plant, it was only a matter of time until I bought it.


It all started well, with the plant branching nicely and showing real promise. At this point I thought I would plant it in a bonsai pot in the hope of keeping it small and displaying it nicely.


It looked great and for a short time everything looked good. Looking back planting it in such a small pot, knowing my lack of watering, was a mistake and where everything went wrong.  Instead of getting the lovely branching bushy plant, it got leggy with few leaves. Today I decided to sort it out and decide what next. The old leaves were stripped off and while not an attractive plant it is interesting.


The lack of leaves is probably due to drying out, most likely with better watering and some food, these will most likely return to being more leafy.  What was most interesting was how smooth the trunks are.


With the old leaves removed, the trunks are silky smooth and have an almost translucent look.


In the end the trunk made me hesitant to reach for the scissors.  No doubt I could cut each head off and plant them up to start again. Normally I would not have hesitated, but the plant looks so odd, it is almost appealing.


Ok so maybe not appealing, more of an oddity, I now want to see what happens with a bit of care. Ultimately it will probably end up being cut up, but there is rush, lets wait and see what happens.
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The echeveria blues (and whites)

August 26, 2014, 11:46 am
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There is such a range of colours available in leaves, the stand out has to be the blue / white you get when bloom covers the leaves. In some plants it is more subtle


This echeveria Lau 165 is one of my favourites right now, it has formed such a tight clump that the size of the individual plants is much smaller than you would normally find. It has been repotted as it was overflowing the last one.  Hopefully it should fill the new pot in no time and has deliberately been planted slightly off centre to allow it to continue to grow over the edge.

Another pale echeveria is e. cuspidata var zaragoza.


It has been painfully slow to get going  but has finally started to form a good clump.


It is a very delicate little echeveria, the combination of the pale blue leaves with pink tips is great.

Then there are the very white plants which require "Do not touch" signs hung all around them.  The best are plants like e. cante, e. laui. One you see less often is e. John Catlin. 


Sadly you never see this plant for sale any more. Instead some of the American plants are making it over. This one is e. Mexican Giant


It is one of the new purchases this year. It is just getting started and looks really promising, the colour and leaf shape are great and if it lives up to its "giant" name then it may well become my favourite white echeverias.

Some of the other blue/white echeverias proving interesting at the moment are the cristates. 


This echeveria FO48 cristate is the more commonly seen crest shape. There are a few non-cristate heads on the left hand side which I really ought to remove to keep it growing properly.

A much more dramatic plant is the echeveria runyonii cv ' Topsy Turvy'  cristate.


It is not the best white colour, but the shape make it stand out.  It is rare to find cristate plants that are domed. This one is not perfect yet, but it is getting there.  I have left the normal heads on in some places and cut off others to encourage growth. I also have it growing where one side is dark to get different growth rates. So far it seems to be working and who knows I may manage to get my perfect dome cristate plant.


You can never have too many white plants in your collection, just keep those grubbing fingers off.
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This aloe grows like a weed.

September 1, 2014, 10:59 am
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It seems to be an unspoken rule that plants you want to branch or offset don't, while those that you are less interested in spread quickly.  Aloes seem no different, and a. spinosissima variegata is definitely in the weed category.


This was it when purchased a couple of years ago, interesting but doesn't really stand out.  I hoped the variegation would get stronger in time, instead the plant offset.


And offset.


By now it was such a mess, even if any of the plants did have good variegation you couldn't tell.  So time to cut it up.


I couldn't decide how many to leave, in the end I went for the two largest plants and we'll see what happens.  Looking at it now, it probably would have been better as a single plant.

Cutting it up also provided a few spares.


The best variegated plant was pulled out as well, hopefully this one will continue to develop variegation where the others have failed.


If you need more proof of its weed-like status looking at the large plants today:


They could be roots, but looking closely the largest are already facing up and split to show what I think are the first leaves.

Now if only I could get my aloe purple flush to offset like this.
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Agave parryi HK 1684 is my belated favourite plant in the garden right now.

September 7, 2014, 3:01 pm
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Having been away, no doubt a few photos to follow, I missed last weeks favourite plant post. Looking around the garden, one plant is currently standing out so much, it deserved a belated post.  It also seems quite topical as in a recent post on the great Piece of Eden blog, Hoover showed some of her amazing agave collection one of which was agave parryi truncata, which was glowing. (You can find her post here).

So the plant screaming for attention right now is my agave parryi HK 1684.


I've had this plant for about 5 years now, it is definitely not one of the quick forms. Collected by Horst Kunzleras it has to be one if not the best form of parryi.  Like truncata it is very pale in colour and a compact grower, at least as far as I know.  Slightly narrower leaves than the truncata, but those spines make up for it.


It's usually best known for having almost black spine, which set off the blue leaves perfectly. However every now and then the spines put on a show of their own and you get an array of colours from black through to yellow.


Being a parryi it has good hardiness, although with the slow growth rate any marks really do take years to grow out.  It comes true from seeds, which seem to be fairly readily available if you can not find the plant itself.  Seeds would also give you a chance to have multiple plants as in line with the unspoken rule, mentioned in my last post found here, it is not only slow to grow but also to offset. In all the years I have had it, there has only been one pup.


So if you already have truncata, go out and find HK 1684 and decide for yourself which you like best.

In the mean time, head over to Danger Garden to see Loree's and others favourite plants for last week.
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Wordless Wednesday

September 10, 2014, 2:14 pm
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Echeveria afterglow is my favourite plant in the garden this week.

September 19, 2014, 5:11 pm
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There always seems to be at least one echeveria in the garden looking good.  This one has to be up there with the most luminous of the lot. 


The leaves are covered in a fine bloom, which gives the leaves a blue colour. Unlike some of the blue / white plants this one has a pink edge to the leaves and when sun catches the leaves the plant glows.


It is a really fast grower and forms rosettes of 30 - 50cm across.  I had been looking for this plant for a couple of years when I visited a friends house to find he was using them as bedding plants all around his garden.   It turns out he dug up two plants each autumn, potted them up and then cut the tops off. By spring each of the bases had formed 4 - 6 offsets, which he split and managed to grow to around 40cm by the end of the summer and starting again. After that I started doing the same and worrying a lot less about them and the plants dig much better.

It warrants favourite plant this week as it is flowering nicely.  For echeverias, e. afterglow has larger flowers which are covered in the same bloom as the leaves. 


Sadly it is right on the verge of being hardy for me, surviving down to -6C (20F), this really challenges it, so if we have a cold winter it dies. Kept dry though it has coped with -9C without too many problems.  Being such a quick grower, if if does get damaged new growth soon replaces the old leaves. 


So there you have echeveria afterglow my favourite plant in the garden this week. Head over Danger Garden to see what others have selected.
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How do you know your plants have taken to their new homes.

September 21, 2014, 4:46 pm
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It has been a couple of months since the succulent rockery was planted up. It's been interesting watching which plants settled straight in and which have taken they time. There are two obvious signs that the plants are happy. Firstly they offset.


The largest agave bracteosa has pupped prolifically, so much so I have to remove most of them or they will take over.

The other sign is they flower.


The campanula carpatica alba have continued to flower all year.

They offset

Aloe Aristrata
and they flower

Drosanthemum hispidum
If they are not offsetting, they are sending out new stems / branches

Aloe striatula sending out lots of new stems

And yes they flower.
The cacti not wanting to be left out


And offset


And flower

Lampranthus roseus, is going to need taming if it survives the winter
Even the last few plants in pots have been getting in on the act, you have to love the determination some agaves show,


This agave parryi is sending out pups through the holes in the bottom of the pot.

So far so good then with the main rockery, although the real test is going to be the first winter.
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RIP orostachys fimbriata

September 25, 2014, 4:14 pm
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You may remember a little while ago my post on orostachys fimbriata (found here). It has gone from strength to strength since the photo was taken. Until last night that is.  I went outside this morning to find a hole where the plant used to be and soil scatted all over the ground.

A fox had dug it up.

We have a real problem with urban foxes in London, and there is one around here that likes to dig. It doesn't seem to mind where it digs, empty flower beds, or into gravel or through plants themselves. 

So where my lovely little orostachys fimbriata once was, just a hole. Careful sorting through the gravel did turn up to tiny offsets so fingers crossed I can grow these on, but it is not exactly the best time to be removing offsets.

So in memory of this lovely little cluster of plants here is the original photo as a reminder.


RIP orostachys fimbriata, and foxes beware this means war!
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Look what I found

September 27, 2014, 2:49 pm
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I got to spend some time in the garden today and look what I found dropped the other side of the garden gate.


It appears that the fox carried it around for a bit before deciding it wasn't edible.  Amy commented on the last post asking why foxes would take plants, and I have no idea. I would guess that the digging up is to get at worms, but why they would take plants, or even just carry them in their mouths for a bit is a total mystery. Maybe it got spoked and ran off before it could drop the plant.

So while the plant is not quite what it was, at least the two largest are still around and stand some chance of surviving to form new clumps.
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Euphorbia pugniformis ready for winter

October 1, 2014, 2:14 pm
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It is getting to that time of year when the plants have to be packed up and moved to winter locations.  Ii is a good opportunity for a clean up and quick health check.

One of the plants that always stands out is the euphorbia pugniformis, one of the medusa forms.


They are surprisingly quick growth wise, at least in growing out, the trunk is much much slower to form. While interesting form the top, the best view is form the side where you can see the trunk.


I must admit to trimming it, which many people will think is a cardinal sin. When each branch (what do you call them?) grows beyond a certain length they hang down obscuring the trunk. It also gives the plant a more messy look.  So I trim the lower set fairly close to the trunk, a few weeks later the remaining bit has dried off and can be removed to give a nice clean trunk. It is a shame they are so hard to root, otherwise I would have lots of them by now. 

I have never really thought about hardiness, it's far to good a plant to be risked anywhere but inside over-winter.  It will be brought in in the next week or so and placed somewhere it can be admired.
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One of my favourite variegated agaves.

October 3, 2014, 12:17 pm
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Taking photos of the plants means there will probably be a few posts in a row with some of my favourite plants, today it is one of the agaves. There are several forms of agave filifera: the compact, the plain green and the variegates.  I got the agave filifera variegata as a small plant and have been carefully growing it on for the last few years. 


Has good stable variegation, this one has two colours but there is one with three. Last year it produced it's first pup and at the time I couldn't decide if I was going to leave it to clump or split it. By this spring two more pups had appeared and so it was potted into a much bigger pot in the hope of separating them out a bit.


It has been sitting on the patio wall all summer where it can be admired and has flourished. The offsets have grown into nice plants in their own right and the clump as a whole looks great.


I would imagine winter wise it would be quite hardy.  The other filiferas all have excellent cold hardiness, the normal forming being planted out unprotected. However given it is one of my prized plants it is another one that gets brought inside and put somewhere good. Without water it can be placed somewhere on view without needing to worry about it getting leggy.

I can't wait to see what it looks like this time next year, at that point I may need to decide if I want to pot it up again into a really large bowl as a real feature.
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Update on the sempervivums in the alpine rockery

October 7, 2014, 2:41 pm
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The alpine section of the rockery has been planted up for a few months now, so time for an update on how the plants have been doing.  It should probably be re-named the sempervivum bed as that is pretty much all that is planted in it currently.

Semps should be fairly easy, but you never know with a new rockery and location, especially when known how hot, shaded, or dry it was going to be.  In the end it was a hot, dry summer, and the rockery is extremely quick draining.  So this should show which varieties cope best in drier locations.

First up semp virgil.


 This was the fastest grower at the old house, so I expected the same here


It has filled out and formed very tight rosettes, but not spread as much as expected.  It has gone more lilac in colour, instead of the dark purple, but still a pretty plant and hopefully will have filled that space come next year.

Many of the plants seem to have done the same

Semp 'Packardian' in June
Semp 'Packardian' in September
Sempervivum 'Red Devil' in June
Sempervivum 'Red Devil' in September
Some on the other hand have struggles to cope with the heat and lack of water. This is Sempervivum 'Apple Blossom' back in June.


I expected it to form a nice big clump, instead the rosettes shrunk right back and left a fairly ugly clump.


Sempervivum 'Rosie' did exactly the same, here back in June.


Then in September, only the main rosette seems to have suffered this time.


Then are those that have done well and started to bulk up. Sempervivum 'Lavendar and Old Lace' back in June


Then in September, both parent and pups have done well. It hasn't held it's colour though and back to a pail green.


Others that have done well, Sempervivum 'Engles' back in June


And here in September, the parent has not grown much, but the offsets have put on a fair amount of growth.


Sempervivum Othello, one of the biggest varieties and suppose to hold it's colour well.


Then in September, lots of growth, but gone a disappointing green. 


The real surprise has been sempervivum 'Titania' shown below in June


The main plant flowered last year so it was only offsets being planted and here they are in September.  Not only lots of growth but how good do they look. Not a single sign of stress, the colours have got stronger.


No guessing which is my favourite sempervivum now. It is so much happy than at the last house, I can see what all the fuss is about.

And I'm sorry Loree and others who don't like labels, they are on view so I know which plant is which in photos, but are out of sight the rest of the time and will be removed come spring once I have got plant locations sorted in my files..
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It couldn't last forever.

October 12, 2014, 2:39 pm
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Autumn is here and with it, the knowledge that the succulents need to be got ready for winter.  It has been so mild that it is tempting not to do anything yet, but this has caught people out before when a sudden cold spell appeared from nowhere.

The main succulent bed is looking great, things still in flower and everything looking like it has enjoyed the summer.  I am not going to protect much at all this year at least until forecasts confirm it will be a bad winter.


Can you spot the winter protection in the photo?  You need to look closely.  Maybe a close up.


This is one of the cloches I made a few years, back.  I can't believe how perfectly it fits there and not only that it looks like it will be bale to protect the agave parrasana for a few years yet. It is always a worry planting a new succulent bed up and getting it through the first winter.  It has been the perfect summer to get it settled so most of the plants should be fine.  If we have any cold weather forecast then I'll throw some fleece over everything, especially to keep snow off.

I have yet to decide if I am going to put the usual cold frame up, or where to put it up in the new garden.  It would be great on the patio by the kitchen wall, lots of extra heat but will be in the way.  In the mean time I have put a little greenhouse in the greenhouse. The main greenhouse is not at all insulated or warm it is mainly just to keep things dry, this will give a bit more protection.


There is still so much flowering in there it is lovely spend time cleaning up.  Currently these are plants that are either cold hardy if dry, or seeing if space will appear somewhere warmer. The lucky plants have been brought in.  It has still to be decided how to use the new bits of the house, plants wise that is.  Amazingly my lovely OH has agreed I can put this light frame up and put some more plants in front of the of the patio doors.


The lights allow me to store more echeverias inside, they tend to get leggy if not careful and the lights avoid that.  All of this looks very amateur compared to everyone else's amazing winter storage solutions and the amazing amounts they cram in your houses.

It's not to say there are not plants in the house, the windowsills are al full


One of the best things about the new build is that the windowsills are all extra deep.  This means I can get much bigger pots on them.  Mind you don't tell the OH that, not sure she would agree it was the best thing.


No doubt there will be a few changes between the different locations as the final set of plants get located.  There are always some that get missed and need more protection. Now all we need is a mild winter.
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Bulbine latifolia really coming good.

October 16, 2014, 3:34 pm
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These have been out of danger for a few year now, it was just a waiting game until they started to live up to their potential. The original post (found here) explained that one of the reasons I love them is the constant stream of flowers.  Last year they produced their first flowers but these were small and short lived.

This year they have started to come into their own. The first plant flowered in June sending up two flower spikes. The flowers were much better but are not very long lived, they get through those flowers at an amazing rate.

The second saved itself until the end of the summer with a good flower spike starting about a month ago. This is a much stronger plant, it was probably the one kept in a warm location last winter. It has been out on the bank for the summer soaking up the sun and seems to have enjoyed it.


The plant is quite aloe like in appearance, although the leaves are a little more fleshy.


The flowers are very delicate


As if I wasn't happy enough with a good plant and flowers, it got better when looking at the plant over the weekend I noticed another flower stalk starting.


The plant was brought inside where it can be admired over winter and the new stalk has continued to grow strongely.  At kew they seem to flower constantly, I am hopig this is the sign of the things to come.  It would be great to have one plant in flower most of the year, even if swapping between the two. 

Now I just need to sort out a nice pot and pursuade the OH that they look great in front of the patio doors. Surely that is why we built the lovely bright kitchen diner with lots of glass to let the sun in.
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New year and new part of the garden

February 16, 2015, 3:23 pm
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It is already the middle of Feb so this is probably the latest new year post on record, but those that have been following for a while will know I tend to hybernate over winter and loose all interest in plants.  The plants have been left to get on with it, the greenhouse all shut up and those inside the house watered once just to keep them going.

Then a few sunny, warmer days and it starts to feel like there may be an end to winter and the interest in plants returns again. It is a strange time, on the one front starting to thing of warmer days while knowing that it could and probably will go back to being cold with lots more frosts. On warm day though you have to get out and start exploring the garden again, looking at how the plants are doing and starting to make plants for the coming year.

This is year along side the spikie stuff, the rest of the garden needs to be sorted including the shade area. Strangely the first purcaseof the year was therefore not spikie at all but these. These were partly presents from friends and family who over the last year have been giving me I.O.Us and put together they added up to a fair amount of mystery package.

I am guessing most people may be able to guess they are tree fern trunks.  In the UK it is so much cheaper to buy unrooted trunks like this. A lot of frequent watering and they should soon send out their new fronds, assuming we don't have an extended cold period that is.

It is going to be interesting working on a whole different type of rockery, creating a shade area with lush greenery and hopefully som einteresting underplanting.

I'll save the unwrapping on here, until I start on the planting. But don't worry, while there will be the posts on the other parts of the garden, there are no plans to stop the succulent developements as well. I have a whole front garden to play with!

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Reasons to be cheerful

March 7, 2015, 2:59 pm
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One, two, three..

1........ The first of the eremurus are showing.

I tend to loose interst in plants (and the internet) over winter.  It seems to be a way to avoid getting depressed by the cold and short days. Then as the days get longer and hotter, suddenly the garden and plants start to look interesting again.  Time is spent in the green house, the garden, and waking plants up with their first water of the year.  At this time the Eremurus wake up, poking above ground after staying hidden over winter. E. oase is the first up this year.


In the last garden E. stenophyllus was planted in the dry bed and came back reliably every year.  Both e. stenophyllus and e. oase were planted in the new succulent rockery last summer, hoping that they would cope without problems.  The first winter with any garden is always worrying, so it is great to see E. oase showing.  It is the plant that tells me to get back out in the garden again, if I wan't interested in the garden before, seeing them appear gets me outside again.. Does anyone else have a plant that signals the start of spring?

2.........  Plants looking good.

So far (as it could still turn) it's been an incredibly mild winter, which is a big relief with the plants being in for their first year.  The whole bed looks good.


Many plants like this agave filifera don't have a single mark.


The echeverias have their winter colour, especially the e. elegans


Even some of the trial plants like this sedum mediterranean mystery look like winter never happened.


It is a massive relief to have got through the first winter without loosing any of the big plants or any of the plants I was worried about. 

3...... Determination to survive.

I wouldn't be pushing my plants is everything survived and there wasn't some damage.  Remember my variegated aloe saponaria, shown here at the end of the summer.


This was always going to be a test, even the normal form is very marginal here. It doesn't look quite so good now.


But these plants don't give up without a fight and look closely and there is hope. The main plant may be toast, but the two pups look like they are going to be fine. This seems to be true with most of the damaged plants.  The first view is of the damage, this is my echeveria deresina x agavoides hybrid.


After the damaged section were removed the tip seemed fine and there were undamaged pups growing already.


This could all change if we have a cold end to winter. Unlike the rest of the world the Uk does not move from winter to spring to summer in a nice predictable way. It was lovely today and the forcast for the next few days are suppose to be good as well. Then next week it could snow and we could go back to freezing night until April. 

For now I am happily singing, "reasons to be chearful, one, two, three".
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A little time in the garden

March 17, 2015, 4:37 pm
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At this time of year it is about sneaking hours in the garden when the weather permits.  We have warmer spring days, then it's winter again and the rain moves in.  At the moment time is spent between the front and back gardens.

In the back it is simply watching as the garden gets into growth.  I have covered the eremurus to keep the worst of the weather of.  I believe extra warmth also helps them flower.


There are now two shoots on the e. oase and they are growing at a good rate.  The e. stenophyllus have also shown up as well, On Saturday there was one little shoot.


I checked again today and there were three shoots, which is the same as last year.  It will be a great addition to the dry bed if these flower and there are fox-tail flowers scattered throughout it.

There are also signs that at least one of the hardy orchids survived.  The orchid trial was more about how they would cope with a dry gravel bed, than the cold. If they do come back then more will be scattered around to give something a little different in flower and leaf.

The wrongly named yucca aliofolia purpurea is looking a bit tatty, but the new growth is all good. I know it is not really hardy, but with the mild winter it was fine.  It is going to be tough to decide what to do if we do have a bad winter in the future. The first pup is starting to grow properly.  There have been a few false starts on pups, but this one finally seems to be sending out leaves.


This is not the most surprising survivor though, I'll do another post on that soon.

In the front the neighbours have been busy. Both sides have had their front gardens redone, mainly replacing walls and driving spaces, but they have cleaned up the beds and put out pots.  Ours now stands out as being decidedly scruffy.  As it was always the plan to do something about it this year we made a start on digging up the weeds and removing the builders rubble.

It was great to have my better half out there with me, although I think she regretted selecting the digging as the thing to help with.  As with the back, the so called "cleared" garden turned up a man-hole cover, lots of whole bricks, bits of ply-wood. All conveniently buried a few cms below the surface.

Having finished that bit, we turned to admire our hard work, only to see the rest of the garden still un-dug and mocking us. You see I told you it was scruffy and needed to be sorted.  I have no idea where the foxgloves came from, there were none in the garden before or in any of the gardens around, but they obviously liked the free run.


We don't really have a plan yet, probably a mixture of gravel garden, orchard, and bee friendly planting. As we dig it over, we are looking through books and pictures online, pulling out plants we like and ideas.

The butlers sink is a gift from next door.  During the clearing up they found it and offered it to me to plant up.  This is the second one I have, the first was going to be placed on the gravel section, but with two I may have to do something in one of the other sections.

The rocks are left overs from the main rockery.  They are to be used to form the shade rockery in the back, another project that needs to be completed, or should be started, once the weather settles.
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The advantages of cold.

March 20, 2015, 1:30 pm
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There is not a lot to like about winter, but if the plants do get through the stress creates some great colour. One plant that is putting on a particular good show this year is the sedeveria letizia. You may remember one was planted out as a test and the main rosettes got through and have coloured up perfectly.


Good to see it is going to flower as well. It has very pretty pure white flowers and is one of my favourite flowers for this group of plants. 

The main plant was in the green house over winter, so not only got cold but was not watered. The double stress has made the colour even stronger.


The whole plant is a real feature at the moment and as the colour fades, the mutltiple flower stalks will take over to keep it looking good. 


Really need to give it a nicer pot and make more of a feature of it. I must find somewhere in London that sells really nice terracotta pots.
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Help

March 25, 2015, 1:53 pm
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For the first time since I started growing succulents there is a problem that worries me.  Some of the the agaves have taken a turn for the worse. At first it was those I didn't realy care about: spares, or small plants that can be replaced. These are left in the worst place, unprotected before they are ready and so often struggle. I don't mind loosing them and so I didn't really think much about it, we all loose plants over winter.

At the same time, coming out of winter, I noticed some of the lower leaves on a couple of the larger agaves in the main dry bed.  The main plants are the set of agave montanas


Winter damage on lower leaves is quite common, so it didn't worry me, what made me look more closely was the agave nigras.


These photos were taken today and it really brought home how bad the probem has got. It's no longer just the lower leaves, but half the plant and that has changed in only a few weeks.


Looking closely you can see round patches in the dead leave, on the less damaged leaves these show up as black spots. Looking closely there are clear raise patches.


I did a little searching online and it seems this is a fungal infection. That's about as far as I have got, so if anyone recognises it please leave a comment.  I am going to have to figure out how to treat it as at the rate it's going it will go through my agaves before the end of spring. 

My plan is to cut off as much of the infected growth as I can and then see if there is a fungicide in the UK that is stronge enough to treat the rest of the plant.  Having never had a problem before I am not sure if this is the correct course of action or not.  I am guessing if it is a fungus it will have already spread to the other agaves and everything is going to have to be treated. The mild wet winter, and wet spring have to a lot to answer for..

It is a shame that the dead leaves are going to have to be distroyed, they are quite pretty, and remind me of contour maps.



Fingers crossed it at least stays restricted to the agaves.

So if anyone has any advice please leave a comment, any information will be a great help. Especially if is news that this can be easily treated and is not something to worry about.
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