Agave attenuata 'Nova'

[GreekDesert]

Agave attenuata 'Nova', aka A. 'Boutin Blue' and A. 'Blue Boy'

[Jkwinston]

This is definitely 'Boutin Blue' from HBG.

Huntington BG

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Huntington BG

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Huntington BG

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[Geoff]

my plant

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Agave attenuata blue top view 8-12.jpg (120.15 KiB) Viewed 10370 times

[Geoff]

plants flowering at the Huntington

Agave attenuata nova flower shot.JPG (164.73 KiB) Viewed 10370 times

Agave attenuata Nova blue flower Hunt.JPG (183.23 KiB) Viewed 10370 times

[Jankol]

From Kew Gardens, London.

[Spination]

OK, well... hate to rock the boat but the name 'Nova' is invalid (latinized). In fact, after the blue plant in bloom found by Myron Kimnach and Fred Boutin, and later was seen by Kelly Griffin in the garden of Alan Weiss way back when in Southern California, there was a discovered variegated sport bulbil among the sea of bulbils in the flower stalk that KG then grew and has been slowly distributed over time mostly to acquaintances. It's very slow to offset and did not really take to TC (that venture given up on as the variegated version was only 15% of the TC outcome). The blue version at the time was called 'Nova', and the variegated sport 'Supernova'. However, because 'Nova' was not an acceptable cultivar name, it was renamed 'Boutin Blue' after one of the discoverers Fred Boutin. Ironically, "nova" is latin, but "supernova" in spite of the latin root word nova is not! So, the variegated version remained 'Supernova'.

So, you have two related plants - the original blue correctly named 'Boutin Blue' and the MP variegated propagate of that plant named 'Supernova'...

My information comes straight from the source and now added here for posterity.

[Gee.S]

KG uses (or used when with RS) "Nova" quite a bit. He used it informally the way botanists use "aff" or "cf". A. celsii Nova, A. horrida Nova, etc.

[Viegener]

Does anybody have a picture of A. 'Supernova'?

[Stan]

HD today has Blue Flame..I had it in the cart..but it didn't look very blue really. I put it back. I'm waiting for a true blue. Still if you live here or close,$22 at the Hayward HD.

[Viegener]

Blue flame is not so blue...