For years my vanilla bean Point Pot has hung on the front of our garage, at the end of our driveway, and been filled with a Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire'—summer of 2021 and it still looked good...![]()
...but since that photo was taken it had gotten larger, turned floppy, and become a sickly color. It was time for an update. But what?
The design of the pot called for something special. Of course you know I'm all about the agaves, and that got me thinking back to this Instagram post from Pam Penick...![]()
...and this one from Daniel Nolan...
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You see the developing theme right? Agaves gone vertical.
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Pam photographed these variegated Agave attenuata growing in a wall at Chanticleer, in Pennsylvania—she visited last October.
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These variegated Agave americana (that's what Daniel Nolan ID'd them as), were in a wall in Quito, Ecuador.
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Remembering those fabulous plantings and knowing I couldn't pull off anything quite that dramatic—since I don't have a tall stacked stone wall—I got to thinking perhaps the Point Pot was calling out for an agave, hmmm. It could work! After all I don't like white in my garden—containers or variegation—but in the driveway it's okay. ![]()
So here is a perfect place for the Agave americana var. medio-picta 'Alba' pup I've been babying! I had just been talking with a couple friends about how temperamental this agave is, and how I've given up growing it in a pot, yet this pup was doing well.
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It's the perfect "marriage" of container and plant. Now that we've flipped the switch to summer warmth —98 predicted for Sunday, when we've only hit just 80 twice so far this year—hopefully it will love the reflected heat of the concrete drive and dark brown wall of the garage. I wonder just how big it can get and not flop out of the container? To be continued...
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