Agave americana

Statuesque, sculptural and about as architectural as you can get. They’re now so widely spread in cultivation that no one can quite remember where they came from. Mexico or thereabouts. Anything spiky and everyone blames Mexico. Very often, with good reason – the place is full of spiky plants. Certainly the new world, rather than the old. Nothing makes a statement like this. A pair in pots either side of an entrance always works. They can take low temperatures (-5°c or less) but they don’t like the damp so hauling them into a greenhouse, shed or garage between November and March is the best idea but if the garden is mild (centre of huge metropolis or near the seaside) they will survive in the ground. The furthest north I’ve ever seen these growing in the ground is the northern tip of Jutland in very sandy soil. They wrap them with sacking in the winter but it’s still a surprising site in Scandinavia. One thing we know – the bigger they are the more frost hardy they are and the variegated ones – as with all variegated plants – are less robust and therefore less cold hardy than the non-variegated plants. Use a big old carving knife to remove the old leaves and also dig up the pups (baby suckers round the base). These can be potted and grown into new plants.