Century Plant
Agave americana
A bold, sculptural succulent whose huge blue-grey rosettes make a striking focal point in a dry, sunny garden, shrugging off heat and drought. Give it sharp drainage and room well away from paths, since the leaf tips are fiercely spined. Each rosette dies after its single towering bloom, leaving pups behind.
- Mature size
- 6.5 × 9 ft
- 2 × 2.7 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 8a–11b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry
Century Plant at its mature size
A mature Century Plant grows 4 to 10 feet tall and 6 to 12 feet wide, taller than most people.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, San Marcos Growers.
Through the year
What Century Plant looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Year-round
Rosette of broad blue-gray toothed leaves.
Photos
Growing Century Plant
- Grows well in
- The Plains and Mountain West, the desert Southwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Slow
- Good for
- Specimen, drought tolerant, slopes, and deer resistant
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Mexico
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Century Plant, that’s about 9 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Century Plant in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other agaves
Parry's Agave
Century PlantAll drawn to the same scale.