Micro Paradox revisited + plant sale haul

At the end of July, I had the opportunity to visit Micro Paradox, a tissue-culture lab north of Sacramento, with my volunteer group from the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery. I learned so much that I arranged for a similar tour for the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society (SCSS). I expected a fair amount of interest, but I was blown away by how many people actually showed up: 22! Some traveled 1½ hours one-way.

SCSS group in front of Micro Paradox building, VP Simran Randhawa on the left under the handicap parking sign

Micro Paradox VP Simran Randhawa gave us an overview of what happens in the tissue-culture lab. (I won’t repeat what I already said in my previous Micro Paradox post — you can read it here.)

After we finished in the lab, Simran led us through the greenhouses (for young plants just leaving the TC lab) and shade houses (for slightly larger plants being acclimated to the outdoor environment). Micro Paradox has 125,000 sq. ft. of greenhouse and shade house space and 800,000 to 900,000 young plants in production. Let that sink in!

Here are a few short videos I took in the greenhouses:

So many plants...

Automatic irrigation in the tropical plants greenhouse...

A few tropicals...

Alocasia ‘Dwarf Amazonica’

Alocasia ‘Dwarf Amazonica’

Alocasia ‘Frydek Albo Variegata’

Alocasia ‘Frydek Albo Variegata’

Below are small Agave ‘Blue Glow’ liners in one of the greenhouses:

Young tissue-culture liners of Agave ‘Blue Glow’

I don’t know how many ‘Blue Glow’ Micro Paradox has in production, but between the young plants in the greenhouses (like those below) and the larger ones in the shade houses outside, they number in the tens of thousands. And Micro Paradox is just one of several tissue-culture labs producing ‘Blue Glow’. Agave ‘Blue Glow’ is arguably the most popular landscape agave in California, so the demand is there.

As a plus, ‘Blue Glow’ really is a beautiful plant:

Agave ‘Blue Glow’ surrounded by Senecio mandraliscae in Morro Bay on California’s Central Coast

Below are several racks of larger Agave ‘Blue Glow’ liners at Micro Paradox ready to go to a customer:

I took the photos below at a recent Micro Paradox plant sale. For $150, you could fill a flat with 72 tissue-culture plugs (2½"). Here’s an example of such a plug:

Typical 2½" tissue-culture plug

Seeing how Micro Paradox produces so many units of ‘Blue Glow’...

Agave ‘Blue Glow’ plugs in the shade house at Micro Paradox

Agave ‘Blue Glow’ plugs in the shade house at Micro Paradox

...it’s not surprising that cool sports have emerged. Somehow, even though tissue-cultured plants are genetically identical, crazy things can happen, like all kinds of variegation:

Agave ‘Blue Glow’ with marginal variegation (Micro Paradox calls it Agave ‘California Glow’)

Agave ‘Blue Glow’ with medial (central) variegation. These plants are actually quite rare and sought-after.

And they are truly beautiful

All of these are still the typical 2½" form factor as the example I showed you earlier. They’re so large, though, they could be up-potted straight into a 1 gallon.

Another sport with a creamy stripe on the outside and a pastel-green center

I had never seen this kind of variegation on ‘Blue Glow’

The glowing red leaf margin of the original ‘Blue Glow’ surrounded by silver variegation. I hope Micro Paradox will put this one into production.

Arguably the weirdest form of ‘Blue Glow’ is a dwarf mutation Micro Paradox calls ‘Pixie’. There are thousands upon thousands of them in the shade house:

Agave ‘Pixie’ comes as clusters....

Where does one cluster end and another begin?

These are all 2½" tissue-culture plugs

...and as solitary individuals:

Solitary forms of Agave ‘Pixie’

I shared a 72-count flat with my friend Michele (she got about 20 plants, I got the remaining 50+). Here’s my haul from the recent Micro Paradox sale:

My haul from Micro Paradox. All are 2½" plugs.

All are planted in 4" pots now.

To wrap up, here’s a photo of three Agave ‘Pixie’ I planted out in my backyard:

Three Agave ‘Pixie’ in my backyard

Kyle and I are planning to have some of these Micro Paradox plants available in our spring 2027 plant sale.

© Gerhard Bock, 2026. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.