Monday, March 30, 2009

Moving a big spiky Agave

How do you move a big spiky Agave? Very carefully.

This wonderful Agava americana 'Variegata' is the big mother plant from which we (actually, my husband John) have propagated many daughter plants. Agava is obviously not hardy for us so we over-winter our plants in the basement under a big mercury vapor light. They spend the summer in our entry courtyard.

For the transition from early spring when it's still quite cold (it's around the freezing mark today), we put the plants into our hoophouse. Yesterday was their moving day. John's safe and easy moving method for this big pot is to use two straps so we can carry it by holding onto the straps, instead of the pot. This makes moving a very heavy container plant like this much easier - plus we don't get our hands anywhere near the sharp spikes.

Even though the hoophouse is just past the barn, it's easier to use the car to move this big plant over there.

Agave americana 'Variegata' safely transplorted to the hoophouse. These plants will have to sit in the shady parts of the greenhouse for a week or so, otherwise they could get sunburned. They need a bit of time to acclimatize to full sun again. Fortunately for them, it's supposed to be a grey and cloudy week.

Mother and the kids last fall before we moved them into the hoophouse for the transition to winter. It takes effort to keep non-hardy plants going!

© Yvonne Cunnington, Country Gardener

7 comments:

  1. Great work guys!! I just love these plants.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just stunning! - ads that extra whoa to your courtyard.
    I am so looking forward to seeing your garden this spring/summer.
    (I was in Ancaster yesterday to visit Canadian Hydrogardens for supplies for my willow field - it's not that far away!)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Lene: Hydogardens is just around the corner from us,(a rural corner, mind you). Thanks for dropping by, and you too, Eve. Cheers, Yvonne

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fantastic agaves. I might try one of these some time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Anonymous6:27 PM

    Oh my..I love the looks of those. Is there a chance I can get one of those from you or buy it?

    Someone gave me the one in the link below, not sure if it's agave or aloe?

    http://www.yougrowgirl.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=10820

    Cheers

    Mick

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Mick: One of those plants has your name on it. (Might let you have more than one.) Email me at country.gardening[at]gmail[dot]com.

    Cheers, Yvonne

    ReplyDelete
  7. Those would be right at home here in Austin, but they look marvelous all potted up in your garden too. I'm impressed by northern gardeners' efforts to move them in and out with the seasons.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for visiting this site. I have a new country garden blog and I will no longer be publishing comments at this blog. If you have a question or comment about the topic here, please use the contact form at my new blog to get in touch with me.

-Yvonne, aka Country Gardener