Plant in full sun, except in hotter inland gardens where light shade or morning sun is best, in a well-drained soil with occasional irrigation in late spring and summer. It is cold hardy to around 15°F.

Agave schidigera is found in the wild from Chihuahua south to Michoacán and east to San Luis Pososí, Zacatecas and Durango but the origin of this cultivar is as yet unknown. It has has been in Agave collections for years, often listed as Agave filifera 'Compacta Marginata'. Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery provided the cultivar name 'Shira ito no Ohi' which is the literal translation from Japanese for the common name of "Queen of White Thread-leaf" - with 'Shira-ito' meaning "white-thread" and 'no ohi' (or 'no oji') meaning "queen". Since we received this plant as an Agave schidigera cultivar we list it this way but note that Howard Scott Gentry was skeptical of Agave schidigera being a valid species when he wrote about it in his “Agaves of Continental North America” and in recent treatments by Bernd Ullrich and Joachim Thiede it has been reduced to subspecies status under Agave filifera from which it differs by being solitary, typically having longer more flexible leaves that are not thickened toward the base and larger flowers. We note however that the Royal Botanic Garden Kew database has Agave schidigera listed as a valid species. We have grown this attractive plant since 2008. 

The information about Agave schidigera 'Shira ito no Ohi' that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.