PlantFiles: Weber Blue Agave, Agave Azul
Agave tequilana 'Weber Blue'

Unbelievable, but this plant survived here this year. Our coldest night was -14C, so this year that makes us zone 7b. Visible new shoots.

Update: They died. Sorry 7b never saw any regrowth of those new shoots the plants put out. Cleaning up rotten blue agave makes your hands stink like tequila!

Beautiful shade of blue Agave. I would not consider it a z9b plant,but z10 and up. Here in winter just temps near freezing made some of the the leafs roll on my young plant. No dieback,but if a z9b winter and 25f ever came along I doubt any but the largest oldest clump would survive.
A slow steady grower here in the bay area. Hard to find. Another cultivar has curved leaves-that might be a nice addition to the succulent garden -or make a nicer looking potted plant.
edit 2011:What happened to the photo I posted???

About three years ago I planted about 5 medium-sized specimens around an inner portion of my driveway. In that period of time they have sprouted numerous... about 60-70...rhizome runners and pup plants immediately adjacent to the mother plant.

They are growing like weeds in the summer full-sun areas that I chose for them. They are drought tolerant, and can flourish nicely in the rainy season also. They do have dangerous spines on the tips and pruning them can be a chore... I let the gardening staff attempt it.

I also look forward to the day when the bloom spike comes to produce fleshy and tender pups for replanting. I also just had planted blue daze around them for a good ground cover and to complement their shape and color in the garden.

This is a great looking and very easy to grow plant in zones 9b on up. For an Agave, it is a pretty fast plant, and suckers both right off the main plant, and up to 6' away from the mother plant. The marginal teeth are quite sharp and easily break off in your skin when you brush against them. The terminal leaf spines are also very sharp and dangerous. This is about the bluest agave there is, so if you like that color in your landscape, this is a good plant to get. Just be sure you have the room for it, as it gets about 5' across and suckers some distance.

Had a rare freeze here in Los Angeles area this jan 07, and discovered, to my dismay, this is one of the least hardy agaves in my yard, showing pretty severe leaf damage after 5 hours at 27F... only 4 or 5 other agaves even showed any damage at this temperature of the nearly 40 species I have (though a few were far wimpier even than this one)

The plant blooms once in its lifetime, after roughly 50 years. After it blooms the Agave promptly dies.

This is the preferred cultivar for making tequila. It is a native of Mexico, and has been cultivated since pre-conquest times, to the point where it is no longer considered a wild plant at all, but instead a domesticated species.

Products derived from this plant include aguamiel, pulque, and tequila.