The 2024 Agave Roast took place on a brilliantly sunny day in mid-April, a few clouds clinging to the snowy peak of Mt. San Jacinto, a crisp wind blowing that smelled like thawing earth.

If you are a lover of Wedgewood or star sapphire and old silver, you'll be hooked on getting more blue in your desert garden. Yellow doesn't pop without it, so blue is essential to making anything ...

• Agave deserti (desert agave). Turner says the 3-foot native blends well in a garden with penstemon, fairy duster and chuparosa. • Acacia cultriformis (knife leaf or knife blade acacia).

"There's also more fructose in agave than in other sugars and syrups," says Jill Weisenberger, MS, RDN, a Virginia-based registered dietician and author of "Prediabetes: A Complete Guide."She says ...