Could be Agave edema. Whatever it is, the scarring is permanent, it may be a couple years before the plant outgrows it.

I would take them back and say not good enough.

If it is edema, the damage might have occurred on the way home.

That should have no impact on new growth. Best thing you can do is provide the plants with optimal light and hydration to encourage maximum growth, to get past this sordid episode asap. Blue Glow's can add dozens of leaves in a season, my guess is the plants will look OK by autumn -- if you don't look too close.

Thanks GermanStar. I'll keep my fingers crossed! They were such gorgeous plants at the nursery, I hope they revive.

What a drag.

That coloring is actually kinda pretty. Think about the desighn element of that white area.

@wantonamara: I have a plant here I purchased with Agave edema. Damage occurred on the way to the DBG sale. Imagine that -- you're a vendor and all your plants pick up edema on the way to the DBG sale. It was ugly, but I had never seen A. glomeruliflora before, and haven't since, so no regrets. That was two years ago and some of the damage is still fairly prominent -- it's not the fast grower Blue Glow is. But it has a large undamaged pup, so I could have dumped in favor of the pup anytime, and it's produced about 100 small pups in the meantime. I'm hoping nearly all the damage will be gone by next year, so I'll continue to bide my time.

It is interesting that edema can occur because of excessive heat, and excessive cool and moisture. I have a A. utahensis that has developed edema god knows when. I am not always that attentive. Being who I am, I don't pull my hair out over imperfections. I chalk it all up to environmental schizz and go on with what I can deal with.

Nice agave. Nice pretty pups, ...good mother.

A. utahensis -- ugh -- another slow grower that's likely to wear the scars for years. I'm in the same boat with a couple of mite-damaged A. utahensis. I also had an A. sisalana edema incident. It really was nasty-looking on such a large plant, but they grow so fast, all trace was gone within a single growing season. So that's the trick, if you have to get edema, get it on a fast grower!

Looks like sunburn to me. Notice how there is no damage on shaded areas: at the leaf bases (shaded prior to new growth), and at the tips and leaf edges.

A good growing season could be enough to push out the damaged leaves and it will look great again.

x

I have two large Blue Glows in copper planters on a stone patio. We live at the coast where the temperatures don't usually exceed 78. Whenever there is a heat wave and the temperature goes up to 85 or above, my agaves scorch. I was surprised to learn that metal planters on a stone patio create a temperature as high as 150 degrees. Consequently, I move them into the shade when the weather heats up.

I hated looking at the ugly scorch marks so I painted them! The flesh is dead anyway so paint won't hurt them. I mixed acrylic paint to match the leaves and painted all the scorch marks. They look beautiful again and my husband couldn't tell where they were painted.

I would never have thought about painting them. I think Blue glow can be pretty sensitive to environmental factors. I would find something other than metal to put them in.

There's been a fair amount of growth so the damage doesn't look so shocking. I'm thinking in a year or so the new growth will pretty much hide all of the burnt leaves. I hope so - I think these are really pretty plants.

I just found this post again 7 years later. Needless to say, the agaves survived and thrived, and just a few months ago all 3 started flowering at the same time. I understand this is their last hurrah, but I’ve enjoyed having them.

True that it is for the main plant but should be producing many new pups. Strangely it produces suckers just above the soil line and they must be removed and planted back up before the main stump starts to die or you could lose the whole bunch. You will however be blessed with hundreds of new plants.

If you don't want to be bothered with the task, See if you could contact a local nursery and they should be happy to do so replanting some new starts just for cleaning up and taking the lot off your hands for you. Could be sold on Etsy or Ebay easily.