Famed Halifax agave nears its end
Capacity for a final bloom unclear
Halifax’s famed agave plant may yet sing its swan song, even as captivated onlookers have started to mourn the imposing succulent’s imminent death.
The Agave americana — native to desert climates like Mexico and the southwestern United States — made headlines last month after city officials moved it from a greenhouse to the Halifax Public Gardens in anticipation of its final farewell.
Once in its roughly 25-year lifetime, an asparagus-like stalk up to 12 metres tall shoots up from the desert plant and births a cluster of blooming flowers - and then dies.
Heidi Boutilier, a horticulture supervisor with the municipality, said the cooler spring temperatures in Halifax appear to have stunted the stalk’s growth, but it still may flower.
“This is what she does. That’s the normal process. Her whole life has led to this,” said Boutilier on Friday.
“Whether or not she flowers or not, we still don’t know. It’s like a big experiment ... The deserts get this cold at night, so this is not temperatures it can’t survive in, but it is temperatures that may stunt the flowering growth.”
The towering plant with long, fleshy leaves has amassed a cultlike following in recent weeks,
with many flocking to the gardens in the city’s downtown core to snap a photo next to the impressive plant.
“Its popularity is a lot more intense than I expected,” she said, adding the agave could be anywhere between 25 and 40 years old. “We see it as a way to teach people and to celebrate her life.”
Its inevitable death has fans of the plant in preemptive mourning.
“It was nice knowing you Agave. Rest in plant paradise,” Maritime River Photography posted on its Instagram page.
Good Robot Brewing Company, a trendy north end Halifax brew-
ery and taproom, recently posted a photo on social media of stickers that mourned the loss. The design showed a cartoonish agave plant below the phrase “You blossomed in our hearts.”
Boutilier said in late April, the plant’s stalk was growing six inches a day inside the greenhouse. Eventually, they were forced to move the 450-kilogram plant when it “started hitting the pipes.”
“It takes a backhoe to move it, and it’s also really awkward to move because of the size of it and the spikes on it,” said Boutilier, adding they weren’t able to find another suitable indoor location.
“We decided to put her outside and let nature take its course ... Sometimes we have beautiful warm weather in April and May, and we were hoping for that, but it’s still not really nice out.”
She said moving the plant into the gardens — where it was eventually headed anyway once it warmed up — was an opportunity to make a spectacle of the plant’s end.
“I wanted to put her out in a public area... where people could participate in what was going to happen,” she said.
Boutilier said whenever she’s around the plant, it always has a visitor.