Agave

Folklore says, the century plant flowers once in a 100 years. In fact, the plant may bloom its first and only time in 10 years then dies. Grow agaves outside as container plants, hardy only to 4°C(40°F) in summer. When winter comes store the plants in the basement and keep them dry. Some agaves make goood houseplants, because of their slow rate of growth they do not need repotting often. The Utah agave with a grey-green spikey leaves marked with white stripes and hair like fibres on the edge of the leaves is another hardy species. Do not over fertilize to speed-up flowering, you will only risk damaging agaves without affecting bloom. Also agaves grown in pots may take longer to bloom then 10 to 50 year span of outdoor plants. Some economic uses of the plant are a alcoholic drink, made from the sap which is collected when the flower spike is removed. A source of fibres is used to make string and rope.