sudden death of a century plant

I live in Glendale,CA. I have 4 Century plants on a southwest facing hillside. I started them from digging up little shoots from plants in my neighborhood. They have been doing very well. Two of them are about 2 foot tall now. I usually water them about once a week during the dry season. I went out of town for a week and when I returned one of the perfectly healthy plants was dead, it was completely collapsed, all it's spines splayed out in a circle, completely separated from the base and root. What happened? Is it possible for a deer to do this? I do have problems with deer eating all sorts of stuff here. Apparently one ate the fast growing shoot of a large yucca. There is a buck with big horns in my yard a lot. I can't imagine a deer taking on such a formidable plant. I suspect something attacked the roots. Also, the 4th plant is doing worse now. It has lost all of it's outer spines, but seems ok otherwise. Any ideas? l scott

Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index