Plant in full sun in a well-draining soil and give little to occasional irrigation. Has proven cold hardy down to at least 18° F after weathering this temperature without damage during our historic Christmas 1990 freeze. This is a nice medium to large sized attractive agave.

Agave 'Sawtooth' is somewhat similar to Agave franzosinii, and in fact it has been sold under this name by some California nurseries. It differs in not being quite as massive and having narrower leaves that are not as ghostly white as A. franzosinii. It also has much smaller, more evenly spaced, teeth along the leaf margins and lacks the dark green bud markings typical of Agave franzosinii, where the glaucous covering is rubbed off the emerging leaves from contact with older leaves. See our listing of Agave franzosinii for comparison. 'Sawtooth' is a very attractive large plant that has long been in cultivation in California and thought it as cold hardy as Agave americana, but have been told by those growing this plant in Tucson that it is not quite as hardy as Agave franzosinii and will be damaged at temperatures around 15 F.

We received this plant in the late 1980s from John Greenlee and the original plant in our garden has flowered several times over about 15 year intervals, but each time pupped from near the previous plant to begin anew. Over the years we have asked numerous people what to call this plant, and, while many noted its similarities to Agave franzosinii, we lacked a name until seeing the plant in 2008 at B&B Cactus Farm labeled Agave 'Sawtooth'. We inquired about this with owner Mark Sitter and it turned out that he had purchased it from a California nursery as Agave franzosinii but coined the name 'Sawtooth' when he realized it was not actually labeled correctly. We thought this a great name for this plant though have also noted the name 'Soledad' occasionally used for it. Unfortunately, some have come to call this plant "Silver Surfer" which is a very different plant that Carl Schoenfeld of Yucca Do Nursery in Texas gave to a seletion made in 1983 (their accession number YD45-83) of a plant that is either a Agave americana ssp. protoamericana or possibly a naturally occuring hybrid between it and Agave asperrima. At the Ruth Bancroft Garden another similar plant has long been identified as Agave rasconensis, which unfortunately is a listed synonym for Agave americana ssp. americana, which is a quite different plant. 

The information displayed on this page about Agave 'Sawtooth' is based on the research we conducted about it in our nursery horticultural library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include some of our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.