ISI 2019-10. Agave mitis ‘Multicolor’

This may be an unfamiliar name but has priority over the better known A. celsii. The cultivar name ‘Multicolor’ is applied to this variegated form. While available in the landscape trade as larger plants, small plants are not readily available. Ours flowered recently and produced numerous bulbils on the inflorescence allowing us to remedy that situation. San Marcos Growers, a wholesale nursery in Santa Barbara, CA, is managed by CSSA Board member Randy Baldwin who also maintains the nursery’s wonderfully informative website that I find myself referring to frequently. Regarding this plant, Baldwin has the following to offer:

Agave celsii ‘Multicolor’ - A medium sized clump-forming agave with rosettes to 2 feet tall and as broad with fleshy 6 inch wide by 2 foot long cream-margined green leaves that gracefully curve upwards. The leaves appear unarmed but have soft terminal spines and minute, backward curving, brown spines along the leaf edge. … Drought tolerant in our coastal California gardens. This plant is considered tender as agaves go but other forms of Agave celsii withstood the 1990 frost in our garden when temperatures dropped to 18° F and in Agaves, Yuccas and Related Plants, Mary and Gary Irish note that Agave celsii survived temperatures to 12° F in eastern Texas. This beautiful variegated form was shared with us by Wade Roitsch of Yucca Do Nursery, who brought it back from Thailand. We had initially listed it as Agave celsii 'Marginata' but later changed the name to 'Multicolor' on the recommendation of Tony Avent of Plant Delights Nursery, who had acquired his plant named as such from Succulenta Nursery in Holland. Some recent treatments list Agave celsii as a synonym for Agave mitis var. mitis.

We offer rooted bulbils of HBG 104253. $6.