Octopus agave bulbils: is there such a thing as "too many?"

Five years ago friends of ours adopted an octopus agave (Agave vilmoriniana) I'd removed from the driveway bed. They planted it in the meadow garden in their front yard where it was much happier than it had been at our house.

This spring it started to send up a flower stalk, signaling the beginning of the end. Here's a sequence of photos from our friend Paul showing the progress of the inflorescence:

Agave vilmoriniana is solitary during its lifetime but it employs a sure-fire propagation strategy to ensure its genetic material lives on: It produces bulbils, miniature clones that form on the inflorescence after the flowers are done blooming. This is not unusual--several agave species make bulbils--but Agave vilmoriniana seems to be particularly good at it.

Our friend Paul cut the bulbil-laden flower stalk into several sections to make it easier to harvest the bulbils. But he quickly realized that there are far more bulbils than he could ever give away.

After filling four planting trays, Paul decided that giving away entire sections of the flower stalk is the way to go



When Paul offered to share their bounty, I gladly accepted, thinking he would bring us maybe a dozen bulbils. Imagine how surprised we were when we opened the front door and saw Paul standing there with this:


The flower stalk section he gave us measures 28 inches:


Amazing how densely packed these bulbils are! 


Does anybody want to venture a guess how many bulbils there are on our 28" section? Hundreds? Thousands?

You'd think that all these plantlets are more than enough to ensure that there will be a next generation. But this Agave vilmoriniana isn't taking any chances--it has even produced seeds! Talk about determination!

As you can see, some of the bulbils are much larger than the others. They could easily be put in 4" pots now.



Now you may be wondering what I'm going to do with a zillion Agave vilmoriniana bulbils. Don't worry, I don't have any plans to open an octopus agave nursery. I'm going to pop off a few bulbils for myself and take the rest of the flower stalk to the next meeting of the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society this coming Monday, August 27th. Stop by if you're in the area and get your own bulbil! 


© Gerhard Bock, 2018. No part of the materials available through www.succulentsandmore.com may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of Gerhard Bock. Any other reproduction in any form without the permission of Gerhard Bock is prohibited. All materials contained on this site are protected by  United States and international copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Gerhard Bock. If you are reading this post on a website other than www.succulentsandmore.com, please be advised that that site is using my content without my permission. Any unauthorized use will be reported.

Comments

  1. That shot with your friend Paul is priceless!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree. I think he was smiling from ear to ear because he had just gotten rid of 1/5 of his bulbils.

      Delete
  2. That's an excellent plan (although I did wonder for a moment if you had plans to go into the nursery business).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love this! My Agave vilmoriniana bloomed this spring also and I've been wondering what I'll ever do with all of the bulbils. The stalk is still standing but I should take it down soon before it falls on a passerby.
    Five of my six Blue Glow agaves also bloomed around the same time. No bulbils there but the base plants are still looking healthy, while the poor vilmoriniana mother plant has dried and shriveled, putting its energy into all those bulbils!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I wish 'Blue Glow' produced bulbils like vilmoriana does :-).

      Good luck with your own 'Blue Glow'. You should be getting some offsets.

      Delete
  4. Vilmoriniana does indeed prove that there is such a thing as "too many".

    I bet the variegated version will be less generous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good question about the 'Stained Glass', the variegated Agave vilmoriniana. I have never seen photos of a flowering 'Stained Glass'. I think everything that's in cultivation is tissue-cultured.

      Delete
  5. Wow, that's a lot of bulbils! Plants do the coolest things.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love this every time I see it! (in posts -- I've never seen it in person)

    If only these could be curved into a ring, they'd make the perfect wreath for Loree's door!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Your comment about making it into a ring made me laugh. That's what I tried to do, but the stalk is so stiff it doesn't bend much at all. But yes, it would have made the coolest holiday wreath ever.

      Delete
  7. I counted and planted over 400 plants from mine 5 years ago and I still have them around trying to get rid of them.I sell about 5000 plants a year from my backyard nursery but can's move them fast enough. Gary from Heritage Succulents, Oxnard CA

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wow, that's a lot of plants! Can I send you some more? Just kidding :-)

      Delete
  8. Oh I wish I wasn't in Kansas! :-(

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me too! Otherwise I would have sent you a bulbil. Unfortunately, agaves don't make great houseplants and this one gets much too big to overwinter inside.

      Delete
  9. I’ve still got 5 plants, and figured I was screwed with that many!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Mine started blooming today. I feel like a dog-Mom with a hundred litters to place... but I love the plant! A local nursery has taken seeds from be of other plants before. Hmmmmm... Mine did one odd thing. The parent leaves curled up and pointed back into the stalk, drying back into a 6" spine. Treading very carefully.

    ReplyDelete
  11. I am a fan of Agave. Can you tell when is the best time to harvest the bulbils? Should one wait until after bloom?

    ReplyDelete
  12. When is the best to harvest the bulbils?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's best to wait until the bulbils are a few inches in height. If you take them when they're too small, they may not have enough energy to root.

      Delete
  13. Hi! Not sure if anyone is reading this, but I will try asking a question and hope for the best. I am in BC and have grown this plant in a pot for many years (haul into greenhouse for the winter). Yesterday, I was shocked to see that a flower is just starting to develop. I'm wondering approximately how long the entire process is from flower/stalk just starting to flowering stalk to bulbils? I intend to move it outside soon. Linda

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The flower stalk will grow fairly quickly, maybe 4-6 weeks until it reaches its final height? The time from flowering to bulbils appearing is longer, maybe 3 months? You should leave the bulbils attached until they're a good size, 3-4 inches. The larger they are, the easier they'll root. I hope this helps.

      Delete
  14. It is of great help! Thanks so much Gerhard! :-) Linda

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment