As we’ve shared with our readers, Perry Wellness Center is the proud home of several agave or century plants. Due to word of mouth, customer requests to purchase such plants lead staff members at Rudy’s Happy Patch Market to visit the many agave plan location around campus. There, they remove new plant growth to start new plants for customers.

PWC founder and CEO Stuart Perry says, “We are proud of the agave plants on our campus. They start as small cuttings and evolve into spectacular plants. I guess the soil composition here is good for these unusual plants.”

It has been said that, once an agave plant is established, neglect is actually the best way to grow a happy plant. Growing an agave plant IS relatively easy. Agaves enjoy full sun and gritty soil and only light to moderate watering. A dose of time-release fertilizer each spring provides additional nutrients. One interesting fact about these plants: many agaves die after blooming and produce offshoots or “pups” at their base to replicate themselves. For those varieties whose parent plant doesn’t die after flowering, the spent bloom should be removed, and the plant will continue to grow. 

In the photos, agave or century plans of various sizes grace tables at Rudy’s Happy Patch Market, and a mature plant grows on the Perry Wellness Center campus.