This first photo shows my first normal A. montana in the background and 2 A. montana baccarat in the forground. See there is differences even in the Baccarat which is supposedly a intergrade of Montana with Gentry. One sees the recurve of the leaves ( a gentry characteristic) in the dark green gack ground and the glaucus leafed baccarat but the more yellow greenish baccarat has a jutting form.

Here is a topview of 4 baccarats.....Another whiter blue green baccarat. Look at the different shape of the leaves. Pretty variable. Montanas are said to have wide cupping leaves. It came in the same pot as the blue grey one as if it was a pup. But Montanas are not normally puppers. It was a separate seedling. Again Agave Gentry and Montana are on the same mountain. Gentry grows below Montanas. Montanas are generally hardier.

Below I will show you examples of the recurved leaf ( gentry characteristic) and the stalwart outward profile that I prefer. I want a big artichoke looking thing.

Doesn't this last one have gorgeous needle marks too. Nice wide leaves, long red terminal spikes, Yummy..... Yes I play favorites

Next one is the one that was sold to me as a miniature A. Utahensis. and fool that I was, I bought it.The leaves were a greyer lighter green, thinner at the time, with white marginal teeth and spikes, but it still didn't look like an eloborispina but I didn't bat an eye. It has totally changed and is developing a very wide fat leaf shape, dark green, great markings.

Here is it flanked by some A. utahensis elborespina that it was supposed to be. LOL.. Talk about Mutt and Jeff. They could not be more different!

Below are some top views of the rosettes so you can see how different the leaf shapes can be. Notice the distinct narrowing at the base of the fourth one.

Last but not least, what are the teeth like. The last one I got from Starr nursery and I asked for big teeth and even though he and his brother are tiny tikes, they have a set of distinct chompers on them. When I got them , they were all white and now they are getting color and the leaf color is darkening up.

He is definitely a beautiful agave in the making. He has the distinctive markings, color, great teeth and the leaf shape is broadening out. I just whish he was bigger. I am not much for dealing with babies. Small things get lost.

I have come a long way in understanding this species. I whish Iknew more at the beginning but learning it on the run was fun too. . I hope this is helpful. I am still scratching my head and watching them change.

One day , they will live here.

and here

T

Yes I am addicted to agaves and I am lining up my next variety for obsession. It is a toss up between Agave potrerana and a vist back to Agave ovatifolia. My two large ones need company so when they bloom there is one to keep the show going. I think you see them beyond the trees in the last photo. There are some new ones with very distinct different varieties of the Ovatifolias. They are crenelated. I am developing a soft spot for The A. utahensis eborespina. They are hard to find good varieties.

I think all the varieties experience variability. I have three small A. coloratas that range from blue white to a striped more grey green.

All this makes me buy in batches, looking for variability.

Me too Tom. aka Tequila! ;)

Beautiful Agaves! Thanks for sharing!

Love your Baccarats, mine is only 6" across. But hopefully being in the ground for a year now it will start to grow soon!

Greg

Greg

Those other agave (?) photos are beautiful too. The reason for the ? is that I'm not sure what Greg's first plant is?

Linda, it is easy, go to your picture provider. I use Flicker pro. Look for a way to share or anything that mentions HTML code.. Flicker has "SHARE" and when I click it gives me several choices I Grab the HTML/ BBC code. Ths site uses HTML code so I select that. Other sites might use the BBC code.. Copy and paste or drag it to the text of your message. This way you can do multiple pics.

For thatlittle bit of instruction you MUST pay some A. montana seed. All kidding aside. Where did you get your seed.I like your agave. I have seen so many mediocre ones.

- Mara

I know you were just kidding, but I would happily send you some seeds if I had some. I actually have more plants than I can manage, and it's too bad that the border complicates things when it comes to mailing plants. I bought my seeds from http://www.rarepalmseeds.com/pix/AgaMon.shtml several years ago and they all germinated. I actually lost the largest montanas (at the time)when we had a relatively nasty winter a few years ago and I left about ten of them outside in pots. In my winter soggy climate, I put a rain cover (large plastic bottle) over the ones in the ground the last few years to protect them from the rain and so far, so good. I think people are finding that this agave is not quite as tolerant of the combination of winter wet and cold as originally thought, although from what I've read, some people have had more success than others. You might enjoy this article by Paul Spracklin, the collector of the montana seeds.

Linda, I would like to ask how you germinate your agave seed since you had such good luck with them. What time of year,how warm it was,how long yours took?? I am pretty rough with seeds and do it fairly bassically.

I have read Pauls S's. article several times a while pack. I hear him on a certain form and I have read about his trip to mexico and his time on "the mountain of montanas".

Good luck with your agave seeds!! :-)