Don't be fooled. Inside this thin coating of sweetness is a fiery core of total insanity.

Thursday, November 17, 2016

Squeeeeee!!

That sound you may have heard coming from the PNW this past weekend was me squealing for joy when my husband brought in the mail. He was holding a box and wondering who I knew in Texas named....Penick?

Inside the box were three whale's tongue Agave bulbils from Pam Penick, who writes the blog Digging. She lives in Austin, Texas and over the summer her infamous Agave ovatifolia Moby bloomed and died, and in the process produced many, many bulbils, little Agave babies, all along the flower stalk. She posted about it here and here, and offered the babies to fellow bloggers online. I jumped at the chance to grow one. What a thrill to get three! One and two spares.



I potted them up immediately in some free-draining cactus potting soil that I had bought just a few days before, and left them on a heating mat inside the greenhouse. Now I have to decide what to name them.

Whale's tongue Agaves all potted up


Should I name them after other characters in the book Moby Dick? Ishmael, Queequeg, and Starbuck.

Or, here's an idea. I could name them after the three Puget Sound Orca pods. 

J pod, K pod and L pod. But that's not particularly imaginative. Maybe names that start with those initials, like Jessie, Katie and Libby? For some reason, I think they're girl Agaves.

What do you think? Got any ideas? It has to be something to do with whales, since they're whale's tongue Agaves.

Thanks so much, Pam! I can't wait till they're big!