Agave americana is one of the most dramatic plants in my garden. If there ever was a plant I’d describe as architectural, this is it. The variety ‘Marginata’ forms a lovely rosette of variegated green and yellow succulent leaves that often they curl gracefully making the plant look like a nest of serpents with their heads up, ready to strike.

Plant agave in gravely soil in a container or in the garden. While it can take a certain amount of cold, the combination of extreme drops in temperature and high rainfall is too much for it. I grow mine in a container that I can bring indoors for winter.