Agave titanota 'Wanky Lanky', Bloom Update, Heat Wave

Despite the heat wave, 'Altissimo' grows up enough to peak over the roof.  
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I finally found a local Agave titanota for sale, yay!  Unfortunately, it is rather an oddity, a peculiar selection named  'Wanky Lanky' for its odd elongated growth habit, which is not apparent on the infant plant--the elongation appears as the plant grows and matures.  I will make no comment on the name.  
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As to the A. desmettiana towers, one is leaning over rather badly.  
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I must do something about it as soon as the heat wave abates.  It is interesting that the two offsets which also bloomed in sympathy with the parent plant have the largest and best-formed bulbils.  Those bloom stems are only about 3' tall (less than 1 M).  
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Before we had our first blooming Agave, I was melancholy at the prospect of losing my beautiful  plants, but now I understand it is not a death.  One Agave stores the life-giving energy of the sun, and becomes five hundred new versions of itself.  

It is not death:  it is a metamorphosis at which to marvel!

The nearby Agave marmorata(?) looks nowhere near blooming.  Look close and see the hummingbird using one of the terminal spines as a perch.
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The aloe flowers in the foreground hosted a little drama right after I took the photo.  A fledgling humming bird half the size of the percher arrived for nectar, and the perching adult tried to chase it off.  The fledgling cleverly hovered between the arms of the aloe flowers in a space too small for the adult, and continued to feed on the nectar, while the adult shrieked in rage.  Then another adult arrived to chase off the shrieker, while the fledgling continued to feed.  Clever baby!  That one should survive.  

Little gardening has been done due to the heat.  We cannot complain at all about this summer.  While most of the rest of the country sweltered,  we reveled in slightly below average  temperatures.  This past week of heat has been bearable and enables the typical gardener to get around to those chores which are normally neglected:  cleaning the house, washing windows, and the like.  Indoor stuff.  The puppies took advantage of the indoor activities to chew a hard plastic plug-plate off the wall and eat it.  
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At least I didn't have to worry about baseboard puncturing their stomach or intestines.  I can only hope they chewed the plug-plate thoroughly so it passes without incident. In this next photo, you can see the baseboard damage has progressed further, and that Natasha The Brick continues to give lean, long-legged Boris (who is on the right) a bad forehead haircut.   Lanky and wanky?  
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Note:  something has been askew with the comment function the past several days.  Something I did?  Dunno.  Whatever I did, it wasn't intentional.  If you have not been able to comment, sorry!!  I reset the function to try to get it working again. 

Comments

  1. I haven’t seen hummingbird in person, and now learned it is so charmingly small. Despite heat wave, your garden looks vigorous with the plants, probably because there’s no water shortage? Heat wave, too, here in my part of Japan, and I feel lethargic in the sultry weather. You must be surprised to see the plug-plate. I’m always attentive for my toddler granddaughter not to put her small fingers into it. My dog used to bite the coroner of skirting board when she was alive. Stay cool.

    Yoko

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    1. I also had plug covers, meant for toddlers such as your granddaughter, so they are unable to put their fingers into the holes and hurt themselves. The puppies ate the plug covers also! It is sultry here still. You stay cool too! :)

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  2. The agave regeneration/bulbil forming is amazing! Hope that the outlet plate passes o.k. Have you considered bitter apple? It's a natural product that is sprayed on surfaces that one doesn't want chewed. Dogs don't like the taste and stop chewing.

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    1. We got metal plates as replacements. They do not like chewing metal. I do have some no-chew stuff, which they find delicious!?!

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  3. I'll follow your lead and make no comment on the titanota's cultivar name, other than to ask How Could They Name Such a Beautiful Agave Such A Risque Name? And I do try to adopt the long view about flowering agaves, but my desmettianas at this moment are perfect, and why can't perfect things last until we grow tired of perfection? Your puppies, on the other hand, are not in a perfect state yet, if I may be so bold to say. They are exasperating, adorable rascals who will chew your house until it falls down around your ears. (Comment function seems to be working OK!)

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    1. I noticed the puppies also ate the plug-covers I had put in for their safety. I realized that when they started pooping them. My baseboards, my baseboards...

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