When you visit Point Defiance Zoo & Aquarium, you’ll discover more than two aquariums and animals like Malayan tapirs, Sumatran tigers, and walruses, you’ll also be surrounded by a thoughtfully curated botanical garden.

The zoo’s horticulture team has been working carefully behind-the-scenes on a plant pairing that would be almost unheard of in the wild. At any given time, the zoo’s grounds are home to roughly a dozen different species of agaves. This summer, the horticulture team noticed something extraordinary: two different agave species planted near one another entered bloom at the same time. “We were shocked to have two blooming at the same time. Agaves only flower once in their lifetime, and it can take between 10 and 30 years for this to happen. In nature, this overlap would be rare, maybe even impossible, because these species typically live in very different environments,” said one of the zoo’s horticulturists, Lo.

One of the plants, Agave parryi, is native to the high deserts of central Mexico. Its neighbor, Agave lophantha, comes from much lower elevations in the Rio Grande plains of Texas and Mexico.

“Their natural ranges and blooming schedules don’t usually intersect, which is what made this moment so special,” explained Lo.

This overlapping bloom created a rare opportunity for cross-pollination between the two distinct species, opening the door to a potential hybrid agave.

“To the best of our knowledge, no hybrid with this specific parentage has ever been officially documented. It just might be a Point Defiance Zoo original,” said Lo.

At first, things looked uncertain. The team observed very little pollinator activity on the first plant to bloom, A. parryi. But, they weren’t ready to give up. When the neighboring A. lophantha began flowering, the team took action. Armed with a couple of paintbrushes and an aerial lift, they carefully transferred pollen by hand between the two species.

“This is one of those moments where horticulture, patience, and a little curiosity all come together,” said Lo. “Being able to step in, move pollen by hand, and then see viable seeds develop is exciting. Now comes the next experiment: seeing what these seeds decide to become.”

By late summer, seedpods had begun to develop. Just before Thanksgiving, the team cut down the towering flower stalks and placed them under cover so the seeds could continue to ripen safely. In December, they started harvesting the seedpods and were thrilled to find viable seeds inside. (A fun fact: in agaves, black seeds indicate successful pollination.)

Now, Lo and the rest of the team are cracking open the pods, sorting viable seeds from non-viable ones, and setting the good seeds aside to finish drying. The next step will be germination. While they’re still finalizing the details of that process, they’re hopeful they’ll be able to grow a collection of truly one-of-a-kind hybrid agaves.

If you’d like to learn more about stories like this, or meet the people who make them happen, you can connect with our horticulture team during a Botanical Garden Tour, offered free with zoo admission on the first Sunday of every month, or by booking a paid private botanical garden tour.