Resilient and hardy, these agaves take full heat and sun each summer our area of the Sonoran desert and barely bat an eye. Such a stately...Read More and low maintenance plant! Offsets can be planted elsewhere to start off new plants. This has become one of my favorite agaves due to their good size, handsome appearance, and robust health, making them a no-hassle addition to landscapes in our area (zone 9a).
I just found an interesting source for this plant in the San Diego area. I found overgrown 1 gallon plants for $9.98 each and had severa...Read Morel to choose from. The pots were crowded with offsets, so I chose one with 4 showing at the top, around the parent plant and three poking out through the drainage holes. When I carefully cut it out of the pot, it had 10 pups. Quite a litter!
I found this beauty at Moon Nursery right beside the I-15 freeway between Escondido and Fallbrook. The stout leaves really do have a texture like sharkskin, something I've never felt on any other plant of any type. I'm looking forward to adding this plant to my mother's Agave garden that I created for her in Fallbrook. I'll add some small pups to the trade section here.
My favorite agave. Here in Phoenix, can benefit from a few hours of shade during summer. Otherwise a beautiful plant and a wonderful addi...Read Moretion to any desert garden. It offsets about 2 per year and I plant them all around my yard.
I planted several shark skin agaves one gal size about 6 years ago. This spring 2 have bloom stocks. They have not quite completed but ...Read Moreso far the bloom stocks are about 20 ft high. At about 15 ft flower cluster shoots about 6 in are starting every 6 in up the stock. They are still buds, I am awaiting to see how they will look. I have tried to find pictures of blooming shark skins on the net but only see under blooms-rarely.
Rancho Santa Rita, TX (Zone 8a) | June 2009 | neutral
Agave 'Sharkskin' (Sharkskin Agave) - This structural succulent plant grows to 3 feet tall with evenly spaced thick triangular dark gray-...Read Moregreen leaves that have smooth margins and prominent sturdy
terminal spines. Plant suckers to produce colonies of this beautiful plant. Plant in full sun. Little irrigation required. The Shark Skin Agave came from the Huntington Botanic Garden and is a naturally occurring hybrid of the ferdinandi-regis form of Agave victoriae-reginae (these two plants, once considered separate species have more recently been synonymized) crossed with of subspecies of Agave scabra, a plant that now considered to be a subspecies of Agave asperrima. The common name Shark Skin was applied due to this plant's texture and color - some use this
common name as a cultivar name (which is less of a mouthful than
Agave x ferdinandi-regis x scabra).
Another name that is sometimes applied to this plant is Agave 'Ruth Bancroft'. Although some of the plants in cultivation may have been distributed by this very fine botanic garden in Walnut Creek, CA, this name is confusing and not supported by Ruth Bancroft Garden Plant Curator Brian Kemble. Plants from the Ruth Bancroft Garden were supplied to a tissue culture lab by Yucca Do nursery and some are now calling the resulting plants
'Sharkskin Shoes' to differentiate them from plants originating at the Huntington Botanic Garden. plants grown originating from both of these gardens side by side and have found little if any differences between these two plants once the plants mature.
Popular hybrid with lots of ornamental appeal- has large, thick, very stiff leaves with a big terminal spine and the texture of shark ski...Read Moren (rough like sandpaper).
To question asked above about plant dying after blooming, yes (that is what monocarpic means).
Resilient and hardy, these agaves take full heat and sun each summer our area of the Sonoran desert and barely bat an eye. Such a stately...Read More
I just found an interesting source for this plant in the San Diego area. I found overgrown 1 gallon plants for $9.98 each and had severa...Read More
Will this plant die after blooming?
My favorite agave. Here in Phoenix, can benefit from a few hours of shade during summer. Otherwise a beautiful plant and a wonderful addi...Read More
I planted several shark skin agaves one gal size about 6 years ago. This spring 2 have bloom stocks. They have not quite completed but ...Read More
Agave 'Sharkskin' (Sharkskin Agave) - This structural succulent plant grows to 3 feet tall with evenly spaced thick triangular dark gray-...Read More
Stemless rosettes with numerous grey-green to light green leaves.It is a Natural Hybrid
Popular hybrid with lots of ornamental appeal- has large, thick, very stiff leaves with a big terminal spine and the texture of shark ski...Read More