Agave asperrima

Common name: Rough Century Plant

A medium sized Agave growing to about 130cm with thick blue-grey leaves that are 2-14cm wide at the widest point towards the middle and deeply guttered lengthwise with a tapering tip ending in a long dark brown spine and with large teeth along the margins. The plant produces a 5-8 meter high spike full of are bright yellow flowers. This species comes from 1200 to 2200 elevations in the Chihuahuan desert in southwestern Texas and northern Mexico. This plant was long called Agave scabra but due to a bit of a taxonomic mix up caused partially by the synonymizing of two previously thought to be distinct species. If you can grow A.americana then this is certainly worth trying as it won’t get as large and would be easier to protect it an extreme cold spell in the UK

• Hardiness: H4: hardy through most of the UK (-10 to -5)

• Position/Aspect: Full sun to partial shade, free draining sharp gritty soil if potted or planted out

• Drought tolerance: Very good

• Size: up to 130cm in height and 160cm wide

• Seed grown at the Kent nursery: yes