During the garden tour at the Ruth Bancroft Garden we saw a stately gray Agave lechuguilla. The was very different from any A. lechuguilla that I had seen before. Luckily they were selling plants that day and I was able to purchase a large recently dug rosette and we now have it planted in our stock garden. Another first for me was to see A gypsophila in bloom. This smaller Agave grows 2 to 3 feet tall and as wide and forms a single open rosette of wavy gray leaves with small narrowly spaced soft spines along margins. It is in the Marmorata group and is found naturally growing on gypsum hillsides (hence the name) and also on calcareous soils in the Mexican States of Colim, Jalisco, Michoacan and Guerrero. Brian Kemble took us back into the stock area and this is where we saw this agave in flower. This same species flowered in a garden in Santa Barbara, yielding copious amounts of seed and we are now able to offer this plant for sale - See Agave gypsophila on our database listing for more information and image of this plant.
Agave gypsophila flowering in the Ruth Bancroft Garden.
