Looking sad

This was my first year growing Agaves, as I got them this spring and kept them in pots. They've all done quite well (even the one I thought was in bad shape), until recently.

This one (Agave havardiana) is the exception. A month or so ago it started showing signs of rotting on some of the leaves and I brought it inside to keep it away from additional rainfall -- not that we've had very much of it lately.

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Even after indoors the dying continued:

It was looking grim, but there were positive signs. I pulled on the central leaf a little to see if the rot extended into the crown of the plant, and it came free:

Revealing...

A healthy new leaf!

Looking more closely, there was more good news:

A pup! An offset that will turn into a separate plant -- exciting!

So the plant is not a goner yet. I'll keep it indoors all winter under my lights just to be safe.

I wonder why this was the only one of my Agaves that had problems? That's one of the things I love about gardening: the constant challenge. Even when you feel like you may have a handle on all that you're growing, you try some new family of plants and it's like you haven't grown anything ever before.

I'm up to the challenge I hope!

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