Friday, November 19, 2010

What Did I Germinate?

This time last year I was in San Diego. I'd flown one-way and my husband and I had planned to drive home to Oregon by way of Los Angeles, Fresno, Yosemite, Sacramento, Santa Rosa, then 101 up the coast to Coos Bay, and over to I-5 for the quick dash home. Along the way we saw friends and family, and as can be imagined, we stopped at many plant places.

This leads me to today. It is cold out and we may have snow down to the valley floor this weekend. I am trying to protect whatever plants I can, but sometimes I do no know what the plants are, so that makes my job more difficult. This is the seedling in question:
This is its mommy and daddy. The picture does not do justice though to their height. These inflorescences were so tall. I cannot recall for sure, but they seemed to have been at least 10 feet tall.

Does anyone have any idea what this is? The plant is super happy, and I will protect it, but I must figure out what it is so that I can care for it. The seed pod was really big and I found it on the ground as we walked past the plants.

This is also how I collected seed from these plants too, and I am guessing they are some kind of Asparagus. If you know for sure, let me know pretty please! (Yes, I grew babies for these seeds too. I wish I'd taken a better picture but I was getting so tired by this point in our walk.)

7 comments:

  1. I'm sorry I can't help with your ID but I wish you all the best caring for the plant.

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  2. I also have no idea what the plant is, but it is interesting! It sounds like you had a great trip up to Oregon from california. As I now have one son living south of San Fran and another in Portland, I may make a similar trip one day!

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  3. Based on the mother plant I would say it is some sort of Agave, perhaps Agave sisalana or a similar species.

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  4. I agree with college gardener, it must be some kind of agave.
    We had one similar in our garden back in my country, and a baby from it here in japan. I would recommend just not to water too much, and if you want it to grow big give it a lot of space, the roots go very deep.

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  5. I think you are both right about it being an Agave. With freezing temperatures on the way, I will protect it asap with all of the others taking refuge indoors with lights. I doubt it could grow to full maturity here in Oregon, but I will give it my best care. Thanks so much. That was fun!

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  6. At first I thought yucca but then, no clue. Agave sounds right, though.

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  7. This looks to me like a Furcraea sp., which means it might be hardy, might not.

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