During The Garden Guy's stint as executive director of the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, I was completely taken by a native plant named the Manfreda maculosa. The common names associated with this plant are false aloe, spice lily and Texas tuberose, and it was comfortably residing in the Agavaceae or agave family. I'll chase the family rabbit in a minute.
We had this plant in what I would have called the xeriscape section of the garden. If you have ever been to Mission, you might think the whole Lower Rio Grande Valley was a xeriscape. So, this section of the garden was indeed for the toughest of plants.
This manfreda is a small succulent, cactus-like plant that serves a mighty purpose. Its tall bloom stalk with beautiful pink and white flowers feeds hummingbirds and pollinators in the south Texas thicket. Incredibly, this plant is the larval host plant for the manfreda giant skipper butterfly, which is under threat of extinction.
So, now a decade-plus later, I find myself having the opportunity to test a few mangave plants on a small scale. I've been doing this the past few years. The thrilling part is this new plant is a cross between manfreda and agave, hence the name mangave.
I know nothing on the actual hybridization of each variety. But I am giving extra input on how they perform in zone 8 Georgia and the aesthetics on landscape usage. Now for a little chasing of the family rabbit.
As I was getting ready to expound on the wonders of the manfreda and the n.