Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

Use this forum to discuss matters relating to Agave, Beschorneria, Furcraea, Hesperaloe, Hesperoyucca, Manfreda, Polianthes, Yucca and related species. This is where one posts unknown plant photos for ID help.
Stone Jaguar
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Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#1

Post by Stone Jaguar »

...If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up." *

Improbably beautiful and "impressive" plant indeed from the Pacific foothills of Sinaloa and Nayarit states in NW Mexico. The white paint lines on this species appear to be even more vivid than those in the vic-reg species complex because of the high gloss on the leaves' surfaces. This is probably the northernmost-occurring of the truly tropical agaves popular in US cultivation, but I'm sure I will be sharply corrected on this point if it's not ;) . There are a couple cultivar names out there for them in California nursery trade that appear to mean nothing in reality since almost all of the cultivated plants are close lookalikes and get pretty "green" and "giant" (>2.10 m/7') in diameter. FWIW, these are RSN's "Impressive" clone from TC.

When we planted this group out early last fall, I was quite convinced that they would be goners if we experienced anything like a bad winter. In 2012, I had seen some very nice, large ones growing exposed to the sky at an acquaintance's beautifully-landscaped cycad and succulent garden located about a mile away from us as the crow flies, so knew that they could handle mild winters in this area. The plants depicted here are all located under or on the edge of open, old-growth coastal live oak canopy. They were purposefully sited up against installed basalt boulders to exploit the heat transfer benefits of the rock. Drainage is very good and plants mulched with fine black lava. Sparing you the boring details, they performed like champs in spite of -3.3 C/26 degree F lows, extremely heavy rain, hail, etc. They did get covered with frost cloth overnight for all of the early freeze events, but by mid-January I let them be to see what would happen. Basically, no damage outside of some wet terminal rot on older leaves damaged during the install. In fact, and to my total surprise, they continued to push new leaves throughout the winter. BTW, of the tropical agaves planted here, just a few large, exposed to the sky A. guiengola were the only things showing any significant hits to their basal leaves. Even they are recovered/recovering rapidly at this stage of the summer. IME, A. impressa does sun-stress rather easily when fully-exposed and Greg Starr has some very good in situ images of fully pink-red ones in his book (I think).

This agave appears to be absent from plantings in the better-known public succulent gardens in the SF Bay area. I did not see any growing in landscapes in Phoenix, but I'm sure some of the Phoenix Metro area growers here have them, as well as a number of collections in Tucson. Given how well this species has performed here on the Peninsula, I think we'll probably put in another half dozen this year.

Largest plant shown here is just over a meter (42") across and put on some size over the past year. The rest are not terribly far behind.
Agave impressa leaf detail.jpg
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A impressa perfect leaf.jpg
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Large A impressa.jpg
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A impressa and A guiengola under canopy.jpg
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Smaller A impressa under canopy.jpg
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Ciao,

Jay





*Matt Broderick in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off"
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#2

Post by Gee.S »

Stone Jaguar wrote: This agave appears to be absent from plantings in the better-known public succulent gardens in the SF Bay area. I did not see any growing in landscapes in Phoenix, but I'm sure some of the Phoenix Metro area growers here have them, as well as a number of collections in Tucson. Given how well this species has performed here on the Peninsula, I think we'll probably put in another half dozen this year.
Really nice post, SJ! I have a single large specimen (55") in a container, which I can no longer get near due to its especially wicked leaves. My fault, I really should have dealt with it before it became a problem. This is not an Agave one sees much in AZ, it is too cold in Tucson, though does seem to manage here if kept mostly out of the sun. I have a 36" A. chazaroi potted up right next to it, which I plan to move to ground before it too becomes unmanageable. I'll say this, the impressa seems perfectly content in a relatively small container, and most Agaves that size would absolutely not.
Agave
"American aloe plant," 1797, from Greek Agaue, proper name in mythology (mother of Pentheus), from agauos "noble," perhaps from agasthai "wonder at".

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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#3

Post by Stone Jaguar »

Gee, I also like chazaroi very much but don't grow it in the 'States. I purchased some of the first wild-collected offsets from Guy Wrinkle (RIP - remember him?) in LA way back when that I grew out on my upper terrace in Guat. Gorgeous and distinctive plant when well-cultivated. I found mine resented full tropical sunlight/UV intensity at 1600 m/5200' elevation and would invariably bleach at the beginning of each year when the dry season sun started to rise higher in the sky again. Perhaps the nursery stock out of TC has been selected for sun tolerance?
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#4

Post by Gee.S »

Gosh, I don't know. As with impressa, I only have a single chazaroi, and that is the breadth of my experience. I have them right next to each other, and my impression is that what pleases one please the other. Perhaps in your part of the world, impressa seems more sun-tolerant than chazaroi, but not in mine. Here, both prefer filtered sun/shade. For a stretch of a few weeks each year my chazaroi gets a couple hours of unfiltered mid-day summer sun, and yellows impressively, but remains undamaged and greens up quickly once the sun ducks behind a partial shade source. So I've decided a little summer stress is good for it. Perhaps you should try one in the same landscape area as your impressa. It's certainly a well-shaded area, which I feel certain could accommodate both. I think they would look wonderful together.
Agave
"American aloe plant," 1797, from Greek Agaue, proper name in mythology (mother of Pentheus), from agauos "noble," perhaps from agasthai "wonder at".

"Some talk the talk, others walk the walk, but I stalk the stalk"
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#5

Post by Stone Jaguar »

Always had the impression chazaroi is even less tolerant of adverse climatic conditions than impressa, but I'll take your advice and try a couple here. I'm actually looking forward to trialing kavandivi outside here as a lithophyte in a REALLY sheltered spot once mine are big enough to fill a an 8" pot next year (he said, hopefully).
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#6

Post by Viegener »

I have one chazaroi & it does the same, yellows up in the sunniest months but then goes back to green. I wonder why some agaves go yellow & stay yellow (except for new leaves) and others go yellow & eventually return to green. It's reassuring that you don't always have to jump up and move a plant.

Can anyone list other species that move to yellow & back to green with ease?

Also, what's the story with A. impressa 'Impressive'? Is it that much better than the species?
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

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Post by Steph115 »

How beautiful. The white impressions look too perfect to be real. Thank you for sharing!
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#8

Post by Stone Jaguar »

Vieg: nothing special about 'Impressive', but it's very pretty. There are much more boldly-marked clones kicking around. Ditto, "Green Giant", a made up name by a German seedseller known for this, adopted by SMG for seed-grown plants that originated from that dealer. They had much better luck with this seed than I did...never generated a single agave seedling from that source, including this sp.

Clarification; on checking, I see that Greg Starr did not include this sp in his book. The image I remembered of the anthocyanin-suffused wild plant is online at agavenandmore.de, a German website.

Gentry gives it short shrift in his monograph and included only two mediocre photos of single plants in the field. He also more or less wrote it off as a cultivated plant in the 'States.
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#9

Post by Gee.S »

My fraternal twins...
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Agave
"American aloe plant," 1797, from Greek Agaue, proper name in mythology (mother of Pentheus), from agauos "noble," perhaps from agasthai "wonder at".

"Some talk the talk, others walk the walk, but I stalk the stalk"
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

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Post by Stone Jaguar »

That chazaroi is beautifully-grown. I'll rumage around my PC files on Monday for some older shots of WC plants.
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#11

Post by Gee.S »

Thanks! See what I mean tho, if I don't get it out of that container soon, it will be too late...
Agave
"American aloe plant," 1797, from Greek Agaue, proper name in mythology (mother of Pentheus), from agauos "noble," perhaps from agasthai "wonder at".

"Some talk the talk, others walk the walk, but I stalk the stalk"
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#12

Post by Stone Jaguar »

Yes, the impressa seems to be stretching a lot more than the chazaroi, tho'.
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#13

Post by Gee.S »

Far too late for the impressa. You want to stick an arm in there? It will live its entire life in that small container.
Agave
"American aloe plant," 1797, from Greek Agaue, proper name in mythology (mother of Pentheus), from agauos "noble," perhaps from agasthai "wonder at".

"Some talk the talk, others walk the walk, but I stalk the stalk"
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#14

Post by Stone Jaguar »

All yours, 'mano :lol:
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

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Post by Neli »

I never new it will grow so big. Out of ignorance I have some agaves that are close to 4m high and wide. I also bought some seeds and might have a baby also. It will have to go to our game ranch if it becomes too big.
I never realized some agaves need shade. Is that mostly for the variegated ones or there are green ones also that need shade?
Now need to google them all to see where I should plant them, and not buy the ones that dont like much sun. Our heat here is not much max is 30C, and we have lots of sun in october to November, when the rain season starts and it cools down and clouds start forming.
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

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Post by KLC »

I don't have impressa but I do have 2 specimens of chazaroi, 1 in the shadehouse and the other out in the open with a piece of shadecloth for cover. I lost the tree that was sheltering it last year, it will probably need to be moved before too much longer. It's getting to be good sized. Even 50% cloth is not enough.
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

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Post by Stan »

Elegant. I can see that in cost is no object pots. Deserving!
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

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Post by Azuleja »

^the 50% off nursery sale I went to this summer included all their pots. Someone got a pair of grande $200 pots for $100 each, which I thought was a great deal for statement pieces like that. I could only afford a couple of smaller ones and was still pretty happy.
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

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Post by KLC »

I would love to showcase some of my better agaves in large decorative pots, then I go shop for them and see how much big pots cost, then decide black nursery pots will do, lol. I try to keep all of my potted agaves in the nursery, except for a few very large ones in 30g tubs out in the back yard. My ideal setting would be to put them all in raised beds and under formal shade structures like the DBG uses but somehow I don't see that happening.
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#20

Post by Stone Jaguar »

Here's one of my partially sun-bleached, WC Agave chazaroi ex-Guy Wrinkle at the end of the dry season in May in Guatemala. Kinda sad to leave these behind, since they have provenance.

As has been commented here on these, they never burned, just bleached each summer. I have noted that it seems to take a lot longer for agaves to "green back up" than it does for them to bleach!
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

#21

Post by Viegener »

Funny that I knew Guy Wrinkle too via the bromeliad (& I guess cycad) world. He had plants no one else had, though people did whisper that some of them were imported in violation of CITES.

Then also Gary Hammer, who changed the landscape of LA by introducing Euphorbia 'Sticks on Fire'
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

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Post by Stone Jaguar »

Not so sure about the "whisper" part of those criticisms, Vieg...

Guy Wrinkle and Loran Whitelock apparently shared many of the same behaviors when it came to their explorations of Mexico. It is worth noting that one of them is venerated as a saint by the plant-collecting community in California and the other is not. Neither is around to defend themselves, so I'll leave it at that.

It is the height of hypocrisy for collectors with examples of recently-described Mexican cycads, pachycauls and other succulent plants - even ones grown from (mostly illicit) seed - in their gardens to have called out Guy for trafficking in wild-collected plants. He was always fair and straight - if relatively expensive- in my dealings with him when I was in Guatemala, all of which involved non-CITES material. For all I know he was an insufferable boor on a personal level, but he never failed his side of a transaction with me. He also got some interesting plants into cultivation when others didn't have them, and that the haters sure did seem to love to get their hands on at the time!
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

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Post by Viegener »

Very interesting. And Loran Whitelock's cycads are now at the Huntington. But let's let the dead rest in peace. Of that generation the one I respected a lot was Gary Hammer, who I met at the Hollywood Farmer's Market selling his plants. He seemed very above board, full of enthusiasm for new plants.

Just saw this in Wikipedia: "Whitelock was known for his extensive travels to remote locations in search of cycads, and for his conservation efforts, described by the Los Angeles Times as “a local legend”. Whitelock was a frequent commentator on theft of valuable rare and endangered plants from the wild, and of very valuable specimens from private collections." Sounds like he managed his PR pretty well.
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

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Post by Stone Jaguar »

No, just jock-sniffing cycad collectors carrying water for other cycad collectors whose jocks they sniffed. Is there any more self-righteous group of plant people than these guys?
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Re: Agave impressa - "It is so choice...

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Post by Viegener »

LOL it's never been a group I was attracted to. Most of the cycad collectors I met were heartless and competitive, and seemed to value the plants more for what they could be sold for than their inherent merits. Just think, this will be worth $1k in ten years! No one in the entire country has this plant but me! Guy Wrinkle seemed motivated by profit & exclusivity, which might fuel some interesting plant collecting, but was he really in it for the plants? I spend enough time fussing over financial investments, so why would I want to stake my fortune on a niche market of rare plant collectors? I'm in it for the plants.
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