The Plant that Almost Wasn’t- The Amazing Story of Agave attenuata ‘Kara’s Stripes’

by Gary Gragg

Agave attenuata ‘Kara's Stripes’ was discovered by me, Gary Gragg, in my Martinez garden in 1994.  It was a vegetative sport off a common, dull green Agave attenuata.   Incredibly excited, I isolated the variegated sport, rooted it and then impatiently grew it for the next 5 years, gradually increasing its numbers through asexual propagation.  For those of you who don't know, asexual propagation is reproduction without having sex. That poor loveless Agave.  I still feel badly for that plant.  By the fall of 1999, I had created about 15 plants.  

Then it was off to Hawaii for a mid winter vacation.  I am always a bit nervous leaving my garden during mid winter for extended periods of time since all my tender plants would be defenseless if it so happened that a damaging freeze were to materialize in my absence.  A few days into our 12 day trip, I decided to check the newspaper to see what the late December weather temperatures were like back home.  I was stunned to see that San Francisco had a sunny high of 71 degrees, while we had 76 degrees, clouds and rain on Maui.  That was an awful long flight for a mere 5 degrees I thought.  Well, at least I didn’t need to worry about all my precious plants freezing back home without anyone to protect them.  A few days later while sipping a cool drink at the pool bar, I noticed a news flash on the bar’s television that California was suddenly having a major cold snap.  I shrugged it off thinking:  how bad could it be since it was just in the seventies a few days previous.  Turns out, it was pretty bad.  I returned to my subtropical garden to see a ton of damage and the unmistakable death stench of rotting plant tissue.  Among a long list of other things, I checked on my beloved Agave attenuata ‘Kara's Stripes’ to find them completely melted and rotting. Impatiently waiting until spring, I watched all of them decay to nothing except one; the original mother plant which was much larger than all of the offspring.  Yay!!!!! A lone survivor!!!!!

So I went back to the starting line and began the slow methodical process of bulking up on the plant through conventional propagation all over again.  By 2005, I had enough plants for patent trials (to see if the plant warranted the patent and naming process.)  The few of my remaining plants were sent out to be starter material for tissue culture which promised thousands of plants if the plant was to be conducive to the process.  This was a big unkown.  Sure enough, tissue culture was successful.  Now, 13 years after inception, there exists more than 2000 plants with more on the way which are finding their way into specialty nurseries.  FINALLY!  DOUBLE YAY!!!!!