Manfreda virginica Washington Co., MO

Although it's rarely offered for sale, our native deciduous agave should be grown in every garden where it will survive. This easy-to-grow, drought-tolerant perennial, native from Illinois south to Florida, makes a flat rosette of fleshy green leaves, often spotted liver-purple. This offering is grown from seed from a population in Washington Co., Missouri. In midsummer, rosettes are topped with 6' tall flower spikes, topped with a floral cluster of amazing, tubular purple flowers with huge yellow anthers (related to tuberose). We have found these to be especially loved by hummingbirds.