RIP, cow horn agave (2015-2023)

Last September, the cow horn agave (Agave bovicornuta) in the front yard started to send up a flower stalk:

September 4, 2022

It took until May for the flowers to fully open. This is what the flower stalk looked like on June 23, 2023 (excuse the poor quality; these photos were taken through a window screen):

June 23, 2023

As you can see, the flower stalk had a precarious lean to it. I had visions of it toppling over, crushing everything in its path. 

On June 28, 2023, my wife and I took down the flower stalk. It was heavy, and I had a hard time holding it steady as my wife sliced through it with a reciprocating saw. Here it is in the driveway, all 12 ft. of it:

12 ft. flower stalk in the driveway

Rosette right after we cut down the flower stalk

Like most agave species, Agave bovicornuta is monocarpic, i.e., it dies after flowering. In the weeks after we’d removed the flower stalk, the rosette was losing more and more of its color as it was shutting down:

The lower leaves began to desiccate at an increasingly rapid pace, and I knew it was time to say our final goodbyes:

Here is the last photo I took of the rosette, just before I removed it last Saturday. It measured 4½ ft. in width and 4 ft. in height:

July 29, 2023, 8:48 a.m.

I set my phone on a tripod and filmed the removal in time lapse. The video is only 18 seconds, but it took a bit longer in reality – about 30 minutes from start to finish, including dumping the leaves and the core into the yard waste bin.

Since Agave bovicornuta is a solitary species, there were no offsets.

Here’s the “after” photo:

So much space!

The plan is to add soil to build up the area and create a small mound. I haven’t made a final decision yet on what to plant, but since I love this species so much, I’m leaning towards planting another one, a variegated cultivar called ‘Holstein’:

Agave bovicornuta ’Holstein’

I scored a ‘Holstein’ from San Marcos Growers a few years ago. It's been sitting in a pot in the backyard all this time, not very happy but alive. Because of the record rainfall last winter, some leaves developed fungal spots, but the new leaves look pristine:

The San Marcos Growers web site gives a width of 4-5 ft. and a height of 2½ to 3 ft., so pretty close to  the mature dimensions of our all-green bovicornuta. I’ll plant the replacement a bit further back so it won’t encroach into the path like the old one did.

I’m not in a hurry because I want to give myself plenty of time to change my mind a time or two. It’s much easier to go through different scenarios in your head rather than act them out in real life.

© Gerhard Bock, 2023. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.