Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’ is one of the most popular agave cultivars out there. It’s easy to see why: It is a beautiful plant, with its vivid variegation. The cultivar name ‘Quadricolor’ suggests four colors, but most of the time, only three can be seen: a lighter green midrib bordered by thin dark green lines and wider yellow stripes on the outside. The fourth color, a reddish pink, appears around the leaf margins on cold winter days.
‘Quadricolor’ was one of the first agaves I bought, in 2009. I paid $35 for it, which was quite a bit of money for an agave back then.
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| Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’ in 2009, planted in the front yard next to the front door |
What I didn’t know in 2009 was that this cultivar, maybe like all varieties of Agave lophantha, is a pup-producing machine. You may start out with a solitary rosette, but soon enough you have something like this:
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| Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’ in 2014, 20+ pups |
Even if this is your favorite agave, I can’t imagine you would want to live with such a messy clump for any length of time. Sooner or later, you need to bite the bullet and remove the pups. I did it for the first time in 2014:
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| In 2014 after depupping |
At that time, I kept the largest offset and planted it in a large pot in the backyard. In a pot, it’s much easier to pull off the pups once they begin to hang down over the edge.
Fast forward to May 2025. Our pot of ‘Quadricolor’ was once again overflowing:
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| May 2025 |
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| May 2025 |
High time for a big move.
The first step was to extract the entire clump from the pot:
As you can see, the pups are attached to the mother plant by long rhizomes:
In the pot, they circle around the root ball, but it’s easy to untangle them:
Removing the pups was quick and easy:
First I considered putting the freshly depupped mother plant back in the pot, but eventually I decided to start fresh with one of the larger offsets:
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| Old mother plant on the ground |
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| Newly planted pup |
In addition to the mother plant, I have a good dozen smaller offsets to give away. If you live in the greater Sacramento area and want to come by, you’re welcome to the mother plant. If you live farther away and are interested in some of the offsets, please
email me. The only thing I would ask is that you pay for shipping. I’m sure several offsets would fit in a medium flat-rate Priority Mail box.
© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.
I did wonder if you had to break the pot to get it out, nice extraction.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I love this agave too, I repeatedly wonder if I need to pull it out entirely. If I could get $1 for each plant I'd be rich. When not in a pot, I find it's a sneaky pupper too, sending its babies out a foot or more away. I try to pull the small pups as soon as I see them but they often hide ;) Agave americana 'Mediopicta Alba', another one I love, is almost as bad.
ReplyDeleteLooking at your garden today, no one would suspect that you only started growing agaves around 2009.
ReplyDeleteWeirdly, that cultivar is the only agave I’ve managed to kill. It just turned up its toes and carked it. Seeing what a terminator it’s become in your garden, I’m kinda glad it’s gone from mine! It is beautiful though.
- Elly
I always have a bucket or two of pups. I’ve never managed to give away more than one or two and they eventually end up in the green waste.
ReplyDeleteGlad to see the container itself wasn't a casualty. I got a pup from you years ago (maybe 2014) and still have one of its babies in a small container. Come to think of it, it hasn't pupped at all. Hmm...
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely gorgeous.
ReplyDelete