Beginning of the end: Agave 'Mad Cow' starting to bloom

In the olden days, agaves were called “century plants” because people thought it would take a hundred years for them to flower. That's not quite the case, seeing how most agave species flower within 5 to 20 years.

Yet the flowering of an agave is still a bit of an event—one that's as bitter as it's sweet. Agaves have a flair for drama and produce impressive flower stalks. They might be 4 feet tall in a dwarf species like Agave × arizonica, or 25 feet in a giant like Agave salmiana. As a matter of fact, agaves put everything they've got into this undertaking, to the point where's simply nothing left when all is said and done. That's why most agave species die after they've finished flowering.

Agave 'Mad Cow', a hybrid between Agave bovicornuta (the cow's horn agave) and Agave colorata

I may look dorkily cheerful in this photo—it truly is exciting to see such a big flower stalk emerge—but I feel wistful at the same time.

The agave in these photos is called 'Mad Cow'. It's a hybrid between Agave bovicornuta (the cow's horn agave) and Agave colorata. It has the size and teeth from Agave bovicornuta and the color from Agave colorata. I wonder how tall the flower stalk will get? Agave bovicornuta inflorescences can be as tall as 20+ feet; Agave colorata's are more modest at 10+ feet.

I got my 'Mad Cow' from Greg Starr in December 2013 so I've had it just over six years.

Agave 'Mad Cow' in December 2013 (foreground). It was a lot greener then.

This hybrid was fairly available at the time I got mine, but it seems to have disappeared since then. That's a real shame. Maybe I'll find a pup or two under my mother plant—Agave bovicornuta is always solitary, but the most commonly seen form of Agave colorata does offset.

Here's a photo of what my 'Mad Cow' looked like in its glory days:

Summer 2016

I'll post updates as the flower stalk continue to get taller.


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