Trichostemna lanatum, and Agave deserti: California blues

Trichostemna lanatum, "Woolly Blue-curls"
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Apparently everyone has killed this plant except me.  I hasten to point out I haven't killed it only because I haven't tried to grow it, though I suspect our south-facing, sharply draining sandy-silty slope would be the perfect place.  Of course everyone wants to grow it:  the flowers are blue!  They are lovely, if small, and very fragrant, while the foliage is a deep wrinkly green, like a highly elongated version of Ceonothus griseus

Pretty, sweetly fragrant flowers on a good looking smallish plant that needs no irrigation.  What's not to love?  Well, this plant loves to die.  It may need no water, but it also needs absolutely perfect drainage, no fertilizer, no organic material in the soil, no mulch, no dampness at all around the base of the plant.  It hates clay, which eliminates 90% of the gardens in Southern California.  Other than that...

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Also quite blue, pale blue, is Agave deserti, native to San Diego, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.  A nicely compact grower as Agaves go, but a clumper:

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Comments

  1. Love the Agave deserti, I love the blue / white colouring to them.

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  2. Yup. Add me to the list of wooly blue-curls killers. But you can see from your photos why almost everyone wants to give it a try! I actually have spots in the garden that aren't clay, but into clay the plant went. Maybe it's time to try again...

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  3. Those blue flowers?! WOW! Stunning

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