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Agave parryi (Parry Agave) - A compact freely suckering rosette-forming succulent with broad short gray leaves with prominent brown terminal spines. Individual plants are 18 inches to 2 feet tall by 2 to 3 feet wide with the sucker growth producing dense clumps. When plant is mature, a flower spike rises 10 to 20 feet with branches bearing lemon yellow flowers tinged with pink. Flowering usually occurs in summer.
Plant in full sun. Requires very little to no irrigation in coastal gardens. Hardy to around 10° F. It is attractive massed in the succulent garden as a large-scale groundcover or in large pots.
Agave parryi grows from south-eastern Arizona south to Chihuahua. The specific epithet honors the British born American botanist Charles Parry who was the botanist and surgeon to the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey (1848–1855) and made extensive plant collections along the U.S. and Mexico border areas. He was the first to discover the Torrey pine and Engelmann spruce, which he named to honor of his mentors John Torrey and George Engelmann and was the first to climb Grays Peak, which he named for another mentor, famed American botanist Asa Gray.
There is considerable confusion with Agave parryi and Agave parryi var. huachucensis – this plant that we sold just as the species (technically Agave parryi variety parryi) has a tight rosette of broad leaves that are a bit longer than the plant we offered as Agave parryi var. huachucensis or the blunter leaf tipped Agave parryi var. truncata, which looks a bit like an artichoke. We also have a collection made in southern Arizona that we call Agave parryi var. huachucensis 'King Clone' . There is considerable overlap in the varieties and much of the distinction made between the varieties is the geographic separation of their natural habitat. The plants we list under this name were originally purchased as Agave parryi in 2004 from Rancho Soledad Nursery.
The information displayed on this page about Agave parryi is based on our research conducted about this plant from books in our nursery library as well as from information that is provided by reliable online resources. We also have included our own observations made about it as it grew in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers when we had them in our nursery field. We also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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