Mangave

December 16, 2016 I’ve been celebrating a belated fall here at Digging and on Instagram this week, as our Japanese maple flamed into orange and then red. Although it’s a little odd to see brilliant fall color at Christmastime, we deprived Texas gardeners happily take it whenever we can get ...

December 28, 2011 Southern gardens traditionally rely on evergreen shrubs for winter structure and greenery. In my Southern meets Southwestern garden, agaves serve the same purpose. Pictured here is ‘Moby,’ the white whale of my garden—‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (A. ovatifolia), whose broad, cupped leaves, each serrated with thorns and tipped ...

July 16, 2011 It’s Foliage Follow-Up, a day of celebrating leafy beauty in the garden. After I took my photos, I noticed that they fell into one of two categories: the fierce, pointy leaves of yuccas, agaves, dyckias, and mangaves, and the fine texture of various grasses or grass-like plants ...

May 19, 2011 My gardening rule of thumb, frequently broken (the rule, not the thumb), is to stop planting by May 1 in order to avoid having to establish new plants under the Death Star. But I make exceptions for cacti and succulents, which require little supplemental water. Still our ...

August 17, 2009 When you grow agaves, mangaves, and aloes—which love our Texas summers—you often get pups. That’s what you call the baby plants that grow up under or beside the mother plant’s leaves. Not all agaves produce pups (the ‘Whale’s Tongue’ does not), and that can be a plus ...

May 05, 2009 Look what I noticed yesterday afternoon. The ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave’s flower spike is beginning to open! The top of it is over my head, at about seven feet tall. When all those buds open, it should be an amazing sight. Stay tuned! And in case you were ...

April 25, 2009 “I rose,” responds ‘Dortmund.’ “Still rising,” answers ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave’s flower spike, which now stands at about six feet. All material © 2006-2009 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited ...

March 25, 2009 My ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave (pronounced man-GAH-vay) is budding its first bloom stalk! I’m very excited and checking on it almost hourly. When I transplanted it from my old garden last fall, giving it a solo spot in a low stock tank, I never expected it to respond ...

May 20, 2008 Earlier I posted about the loss of a favorite plant, Manfreda ‘Macho Mocha,’ also called mangave, to the agave snout-nosed weevil. I’d planted the mangave to show it off in a yellow-green glazed pot by the front door, but once the weevils got to it, the effect, ...