Agave virginica
Dennis Kramb (Mon, 08 Jun 2009 18:37:29 PDT)

My Manfreda virginica clump is now several years old. As I mentioned
earlier (like a year ago) I grew it from NARGS seed.

Anyhooo... the plant bloomed great 3 years ago on a stalk that was
nearly 8 ft. tall. Here is a picture of me posing with it...
http://badbear.com/dkramb/…

It bloomed on a smaller stalk the next year (approx 4ft.).

Then last year, no bloom.

And again this year, no bloom.

I dug up the Manfreda clump and moved it to a regular garden bed. I did
not divide the clump, as I had no idea how sensitive the plants are to
transplanting. I tried to keep the rootball intact and undamaged. The
gravel bed shown in the photo seems to be depleted of nutrients... as
none of the nearby irises bloomed this year either.

I bought several Polianthes this spring to try crossing with my
Manfreda, but you can see that plan is not going to work for me this season.

I am growing several other Manfreda seedlings that are from native Ohio
populations. But those may be 2 or 3 years away from blooming. I
forget how long it took my original seed-grown plant to bloom.

Dennis in Cincy

(Believe it or not, to get this photo I balanced my camera on the hood
of my car and used the remote control shutter button which is hidden in
my pocket. LOL.)