Repotting a passel of agave pups

The northwest corner of the backyard has become a makeshift nursery of sorts where I grow on smaller plants until they're ready to go in the ground. But instead of simply gaining size, some succulents produce offsets as well. And before you know it, the 3- or 4-inch nursery pots start bursting at the seams. That's when it's time to separate the clump. Agave 'Blue Ember' is a case in point:

Agave 'Blue Ember'

The exact parentage of Agave 'Blue Ember' is unknown, but visually it appears to be similar to 'Blue Emperor' and 'Burnt Burgundy'. No matter what it is, it's an attractive hybrid with good landscaping potential. I bought a 4-inch plants from a UC Davis Arboretum plant sale a couple of years ago and promptly neglected it. 

Look what I found when I took the clump out of the nursery pot:

Agave 'Blue Ember'

Healthy roots, some root mealies (easily washed off), but most of all lots of offsets:

Agave 'Blue Ember'

↴ And here's another one, a pretty agave that lost its label. I was hoping it had simply fallen out of the pot, but I haven't been able to find it.

Agave 'Lost Label'

↴ Here are these two agaves after separating and repotting: 6 pots of Agave 'Blue Ember' (one pot has four tiny offsets in it), and 4 pots of the mystery agave.

Agave 'Blue Ember' (6 pots) and lost label agave (4 pots)

↴ When you're having this much fun, you don't want it to end. Fortunately, in my makeshift nursery there's no shortage of plants in need of repotting:

3 Dyckia hybrids (4 pots) and Agave ×ovatispina 'Sea Star'

Agave ×ovatispina 'Sea Star' is a beautiful hybrid between Agave ovatifolia and Agave parrasana with creamy margins. It's available from several sources now, including Plant Delights and San Marcos Growers. It was originally selected by Dutch agave collector Stef van Dort from a batch of seedlings grown from seed collected in Northern Mexico where the two species supposedly coexist. My main plant is in the ground in the front yard; I removed some offsets from it  last year, and these have produced a generous crop of pups of their own. 

↴ I now have ten plants in pots, and the mother plant is still busy making more babies.

Agave ×ovatispina 'Sea Star' (10! pots)

↴ As for the dyckias, I decided not to separate them because they looked good as clumps. But I did clean them up and moved them to larger pots:

Dyckia 'Sawtooth' and Dyckia rariflora (bottom)

↴ And finally a tray of Hechtia argentea seedlings and ×Puckia 'Sparkle' offsets (an intergeneric hybrid between Puya laxa and Dyckia fosteriana × Dyckia platyphylla):

Hechtia argentea and ×Puckia 'Sparkle'

I know it's hard to believe (NOT!), but this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are more agaves and other succulents waiting to be declumped and/or repotted. 

The logical question is, what am I going to do with all these plants? I have a feeling I may have to finally have that plant sale I've been talking about for years. Maybe in the spring...

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