Box on porch

When a cardboard box arrives on the front porch at my house in the spring, there's a good chance it's going to contain plants.

When the box contains a label that indicates "live plants" there's no doubt about it. New plants!

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The box also said "premium all-beef hot dogs, keep refrigerated" which could also be quite exciting, but I'd rather have some plants today. Love the reuse of boxes!

Let's take a look inside:

Hopefully there's nothing in here as dangerous as there was in one of the previous paper-packed boxes I received.

After sorting through the paper wads used for packing and those that actually contained plants, there are seven exciting items:

A bit more unwrapping:

and we have an Agave!

Actually, we have five Agaves and a couple of Yuccas:

I purchased these from Cistus Nursery in Oregon, during their 40% off Agave sale (which goes through the end of April if you're interested).

Nice, informative labels on each plant:

Plus each label had my name on it!

Sorry Gayle, I got one of your plants:

So what did I get?

• Agave utahensis
• Agave harvardiana
• Agave parryi (aff. var. couesii) SBHMPS 6725
• Agave neomexicana
• Agave mckelveyana SBH 6708
• Yucca nana
• Yucca rostrada 'Sapphire Skies'

I'm not sure what the SBH numbers are, but I included them here in case somebody reading this may want to know all of the details.

They were smaller plants, but not bad for the price I paid, and I certainly can't get these locally:

They all had great root systems though:

Here they are, all potted up in a well-draining potting mix (lots of perlite and sand, just like I used with the Opuntia pads I potted up a few weeks back):

Quite nice, aren't they?

Quite dangerous too, as this bad boy drew blood during a careless moment while potting:

I'm not certain yet if I'll let these stay in pots the whole summer or if I'll get them into the ground. I've got plans for a new drought-tolerant, sun-loving succulent bed, but I'm not sure if all of these smaller plants will be ready to go into the ground this year.

I've got no problem with keeping them in pots for a year though. Just beautiful!

I also have plenty of new rubber bands too. Bonus! (That was a great packaging job Cistus!)

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