Plant in full to part sun. Little irrigation required. This plant is hardy to at least 20° F. A great plant in containers or in groups. This plant is very similar to Agave 'Blue Glow’, but has leaves that are slightly greener, broader and not as thick with a habit that is slightly more lax with age so that the older leaves lay more horizontal while those of 'Blue Glow' remain more upwardly inclined. The margins, while still red with a hint of yellow along the inner edge, are nearly devoid of any teeth while 'Blue Glow’ has small teeth along the lower leaf margins.

The parentage of this plant is likely the same as 'Blue Glow', which is thought to be a cross between Agave attenuata and A. ocahui, though the first plant we received had a Huntington Botanic Garden tag indicating it was a cross between Agave attenuata and our California native, Agave shawii, but clearly this was not correct. There were several similar hybrids, some associated with legendary succulent breeder Ed Hummel and this plant does also very much resemble one such plant thought to be a Hummel hybrid called Agave 'Red Margin'. It is so similar that we recently have been convinced that it is the same and we have changed our listing from Agave 'Blue Glow de Jose' to this name.

We first received this plant in 2005 from the Huntington Botanic Gardens tagged Agave 'Blue Glow' HBG 89058 with the note that received it from Serra Gardens (then in Malibu in 1997) with the listed synonym Agave 'Jose'. This was thought to be a reference to Jose Pfaffer, who was once an employee of Tropic World Nursery, the legendary nursery in Escondido established by the late Paul Hutchison. To distinguish this plant from the widely popular Agave 'Blue Glow' introduced by Rancho Soledad Nursery that we also continue to grow, we renamed this plant Agave ‘Jose’s Blue Glow’ and later, to keep in in alphabetical order next to its cousin, as 'Blue Glow de Jose'. Jeff Moore and Jeremy Spath have a forthcoming excellent book titled Agaves: Species, Cultivars & Hybrids and in this book it lists these plants as synonyms. We have decided to list our plants as they do, calling it Agave 'Red Margin' and sold this plant from 2015 until 2023 under this name. 

This information about Agave 'Red Margin' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.