Finding Free Plants: Agave

Today, we were out for our morning exercise, which was a walk around the neighborhood, when we discovered that someone had thrown a plant in the ditch. A live plant with roots. We love finding free plants, and so we scooped it up.

agave




The first thing we did was try to identify it, and for that we used our Plant Net App.



As we suspected, it turned out to be an agave, and we think it is a an Agave Univittata Haw also called a McKelvey's Century Plant. It was quite spiky, but we walked by The Land to pick up a planter, and with gloves and the planter, we managed to bring it back to The Land in one piece and without any injuries.



We have been playing with the idea of creating a xeriscaping garden made of rocks and plants that need very little water, as we do not have a water source at The Land. We have some found aloe vera that we have been multiplying back at the house, and we will transplant a few over to the new xeriscaping garden at The Land.

agave


In our northern part of Florida, we really do not have many rocks, but we've found a few coquina rocks at the beach, and a few weeks ago our daughter discovered a discarded garden sphinx at the border of a wooded area- all of which will help enhance the look of the new garden area.

Xeriscaping with Agave


Another reason why we think a xeriscaping garden area at The Land will work is that we do not have any fencing, and the wild life are enjoying any plants we grow outside of our palmetto-bordered vegetable garden. We're pretty confident that this spiky Agave will be left alone, and so it will be the start of our rock garden.

The Agave Univittata is native to coastal areas of Texas and northeastern Mexico, so it is far from a native Florida plant, but we will work with it. It is supposed to be hardy down to 5 degrees Fahrenheit, and since we only get one or two nights a year down near freezing, it should do alright in our open garden at The Land.

McKelvey's Century Plant is not supposed to grow larger than 24 inches, so it is not as imposing as the large century plants, which we otherwise see in our neighborhood.




If you have any ideas of what kind of plants we should add to our xeriscaping garden, we are all ears. 


Have we identified our Agave plant find correctly?

We'd also love to hear about any free plants that you have found.


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