Agaves in my 'hood; part two of Agave week

A little backstory on agave week. I, and many others I know, have experienced some pretty serious damage on our agaves this winter, agaves that haven't shown damage in previous (maybe even worse) winters. Phormiums and cordylines have also been hit hard, it's definitely a PKW—phormium killing winter. I chalk this all up to the three consecutive days below freezing (with strong winds, ice pellets and a lot of rain before and after) that we endured in December. Driving around town (and seeing Facebook posts) it was obvious the damage was rather hit and miss, not all parts of town (or all plants) were hit in the same way.

It wasn't until I dove by this planting, and stopped to look closer...

... that I decided I needed to delve deeper and try to make some sense out of what and where damage was showing up. Obviously these phormium are toast, I could see that from the street.

The agave damage wasn't evident until I walked closer. These are Agave ovatifolia and have been in place for a few years.

This planting is very close to my garden, a block and a half north and 10 blocks east.

I will be keeping an eye on it to see what happens. I can't imagine the agaves will be left to grow out of it. But we'll see...

This planting is just three blocks away. As I walked up to it everything looked fine.

Looking closer though I see there is some rot in the center of this agave...

And some spots on the lower leaves of another, it doesn't look good.

An Agave montana looks good at the center, although some of the lower leaves will be lost.

I couldn't make an assessment of the other agaves as they were too far back from the sidewalk for me to get a good look.

Same for this ovatifolia across the street, it looks great, but I couldn't really get close enough to see for sure.

Up the street a bit more is this NOID. I think when I originally spotted it, it was in a container, nice to see that it's in the ground and looking solid.

I've been keeping an eye on this large Agave ovatifolia, as the house recently sold and the smaller agaves nearby were removed. I suppose I should tuck a note in the mailbox offering to remove this beauty if the new owners don't appreciate it.

I think the only damage it's experiencing is from the moving van.

This planting makes me both happy and sad. Did they tuck the plants in knowing they wouldn't make it thru the winter, but wanted to enjoy them over the summer? Or did they think they were going to last long term?

On the left side planter: I suppose this cactus might make it, as long as the rot isn't allowed to spread further. The agave looks solid, I wish I'd had my long tweezers to pull out that leaf litter though.

On the right: that bromeliad it toast, as are the echeveria and aloe (when I say "toast" I mean the visible parks of the plant, might they grow back from the roots? Dunno/doubt it). The opuntia looks a little questionable, but it might pull thru.

This spiky little guy is the super star though, look how good he looks!

We've visited this garden a couple times. They once had a Fouquieria splendens (ocotillo) planted here, which sadly didn't make it.

I am amazed at how great their Agave americana 'striata' looks.

As does everything else I could see from the sidewalk.

This garden is about seven blocks from me, what they have going for them is that the garden is south facing and the house (and several others) block the east winds. My front garden is east facing with a park at the end of the street and land that drops off toward the Columbia Rover Gorge from there, in other words, it's a wind tunnel.

Walking on to the next garden I passed this small Agave parrasana 'Meat Claw' with a nicely engineered downspout. Water run away dammit!

Next up is this sweet front garden with a trio of Agave ovatifolia.

As near as I could tell the one on the far right front looked good.

A little lower leaf damage to the one on the upper right...

And some top center damage to the one on the left. All damage seems to be just cosmetic though, nothing cause for real concern.

I am jealous of that nice little greenhouse soaking up southern exposure heat on the side of the house, and the last time I shared pictures of this garden several of you got excited about that palm at the corner, maybe a Butia capitata? It's not looking so good right now.

Heading back towards home I swung by this planting. The phormium is a bit sad but the yucca look good.

As do the agaves, Agave parryi here...

Agave ovatifolia (the strange shapes at the center are just leaves blown in from surrounding trees).

And Agave parrasana 'Meat Claw'.

Damn this one looks great!

Even closer to home now is this tiny front garden in front of one of Portland's "skinny houses"...

Agave ovatifolia with a little damage, none of which looks to be winter caused.

The second A. ovatifolia looked great.

And the 'Meat Claw' only had some small damage on one leaf.

How are you doing? Getting bored? Just two more gardens, first... McMenamins Kennedy School. Have I shared this fun pleated nolina here before? I keep expecting those crimped leaves to straighten out, but they aren't.

The agaves that line up along the north side of the parking area all look nice and solid.

There's an Agave 'Sharkskin' hiding out under that protective layer.

This massive Agave ovatifolia is on the south side of the building.

At first it looked to only have a few lower leaves with damage.

But once I walked around to get a look at the center of the plant I could see it too was suffering. This had me thinking back to all the others that looked good from my vantage point on the sidewalk.