Thanks for the ID'ing! It's definitely possible that the Agave needs more light. A question, though: When I compare A. desmettiana variegata to 'Joe Hoak', what my (inexperienced) eye spots right off is the color pattern. 'Joe Hoak' has green along the outer edge of the leaves, with varying amounts of yellow/pale green in the center, mostly yellow; while desmettiana variegata has yellow edges, and is predominantly medium to dark green in the center. What led me to guess at 'Joe Hoak' for mine is the green along the leaf edges and the general paleness of the green in the center. From your reactions, I wonder if there's something else I'm missing. You mention the growth shape; is that the key factor? What should I be looking for as the distinguishing characteristics? Pirate_girl - Thanks for the Haworthia confirmation; I was pretty sure on that one but it's still nice to get a second opinion. :)

Your Aloe could be A. trichosantha, but it could be a number of other ones, too. Many aloes are distichous when young and only go to the more familiar rosette shape when older. Other than A. plicatilis, I don't know of any Aloe that keeps a distichous growth pattern. Your Agave is more than a few years from flowering, IMHO. That one pups prolifically, so when it does flower, I shouldn't worry about preventing it - you'll be busy hacking (and I use that term advisedly) the pups off to pot up/give away.

Pink fruit potato leaf plant is true "Brandywine", aka Brandywine Sudduth strain. "Red Brandywine" is something else, unrelated. It came from [possibly the Amish] Landis Valley PA. "Brandywine" was grown by the Sudduth family in Tennesee. ******** I don't think I'd equate Brandywine with the Sudduth strain these days as being the TRUE strain b/c there are several other strains out there and more to the point just the name Brandywine doesn't equal Sudduth b/c the generic name Brandywine can mean any of several strains, not just the Sudduth/Quisenberry. Doris Hill Sudduth gave those seeds to Ben quisenberry and he gave his whole collection to SSE in 1980. While it would seem natural to equate with the Brandywine River Valley in PA, there's no documentation that says that. The information about Brandywine in the SSE catalog re Johnson and Stokes listing it is dicey since there's only a line drawing and no color is mentioned and those of us who have seed the info/picture from that catalog cannot confirm that what's shown is PL or pink and it's probably RB. ******* All of the pink ones are the more or less the same thing [same flavor etc] just with different strain names they picked up along the way depending on who grew the seeds. There are three "Red Brandywine"s on the market. The real one from Landis Valley, and two imposters, one regular leaf, and one potato leaf. The imposters made their way to a lot of, maybe most of, the seed venders out there. So if you have Brandywine, and it is pink, it is the real deal, and if you have Red Brandywine that does not say Landis on the package/tag it is probably not the real deal Red. ******* First, I've grown several different strains of Brandywine and just can't agree that they all taste about the same. Here's the story on Red Brandywine. It was first gotten out of the SSE Yearbook by Tom Hauch of Heirloom Seeds in PA who still considers it his signature tomato. He gave seeds to Steve Miller at the Landis Museum where they try to collect Amish varieties. It was Steve Miller who did the background work that led to our knowing that this is the only variety with Brandywine as part of the name that could be traced to the Amish in about 1885 as I recall. There are many sites with true RL RB, Sandhill Preservation is one of them and there are others so Landis does not equal the only true RB. Most of the discussion has centered on the situation at TGS where Linda did get her RB from the Landis Museum, but it isn't a strain, there are no strains of RB, and it isn't the only true RB being offered as I just indicated. So one can't equate Landis with true RB. And yes, at TGS if you want true RB you need to get the one with Landis as part of the name b'c as I and others have pointed out she also lists a RL and PL RB and neither are RB and the source was Seeds by Design in CA. I've urged her to say they aren't RB, but so far I haven't been successful, but I'll keep trying. ( smile) ******* The potaoleaf red is supposedly a decent tomato, and unusual for being a red fruit potatoleaf. Backlash from this marketing mistake may mean that if it does not get renamed it will be taken off the market and face extinction. Again, referring to primarily TGS, the main reason that Linda hasn't dropped the wrong PL and RL falsely named RB's is b'c many folks do like them. And no, it won't get renamed, heaven forbid, and it won't be taken off the market b'c Linda can have her subcontracter produce new seed any time she wants to. And there are other PL reds out there as well at different seed sources and also traded back and forth between some folks and also in the SSE Yearbook. I've known Linda since the early 90's and consider her a good friend and have sent many many OP varieties to her for trial. She's one of the nicest, most honest persons I've met in my heirloom tomato career. And I could make that same statement for the owners of a couple of other small family sites where I've known the owners for many years. Carolyn, no time to edit, have to go watch the Wimbledon Willians final. Bye. LOL

Oh thank you! Yes they are inside all the time, I live in a third floor apartment. I do have a large covered porch, but in only gets hot afternoon sun. I take some of my plants, like my echeveria outside when I can in the afternoon, but usually have to move them a few times to keep them in the sunlight. So these guys stay inside and get the evening sun in front of two large northwestern facing windows. They are supported by a light with two 23w cfl bulbs. Plants get rotated under that--though these guys don't spend a lot of time directly under it! They were under it for this photo--I think that makes them look much better than they really do! Haha. Do you keep your inside or out? The left one was my first haworthia, to be honest I could resist the ceramic bird planter it was in. It was one by Live Trends, at lowes. This one had a bunch of moss on top and was placed in the pot you see in inside it. This one seems to etiolate kind of fast. The others don't as much. The one in the yellow pot and the potless one are also from the Live Trends brand in those magnetic pots. They were in clearance so I gave in. One was wrapped in kind of a fabric material and stuffed in. The other did have a plastic pots inside. The one with the pup may have had mold on it so it dried out for a few days and then I planted it. Eventually I realized it lost its roots so I took it out and planted it again later, it got moldy, so it's just been kind of laying around for the last month or so lol. The two on the right came from Walmart. Originally I intended to give some away as gifts, but now I'm a little attached and don't trust others to properly care for them, haha. I should problably get the one out of that shallow pot...will do that eventually... Okay, wow just gave you way more info than you needed. Anyway, I'm hoping all of mine are the kind that dont grow to big or too tall because I've got limited space, especially as my collection grows!