Re: What's your favorite Aloe?

Well, I could go on and on and on and on about Aloes. I used to grow hundreds of them when we gardened on top of a cliff overlooking the sea - Gulf St Vincent where the soil was just a few inches deep over sheet limestone, no frosts and long hot summers. We had a large collection of miniature species and hybrids in pots, delightful plants all and stunning in leaf and flower if you got up real close to see all the tiny details of leaf colour, 'spines' and teeth, and of course the delightful winter flowers. Outside we grew lots of low clumping forms - striata, variegata, etc and also the long trailing kinds and a few climbers - red and yellow forms of ciliaris.

But best of all I liked the big tree form species - ferox, africana, bainesii, arborescens, dichotoma (dificult for me - too wet and not sufficiently desert-like where we were). These are easily grown from trunk cuttings - truncheons to some, with a growing point atop. Simply stood them to dry for a month or so and them tied to a stake to hold them upright with the calloused base just resting on the soil. Within a few months the plants were rooted and on the way. A year later most were strong enough to be stable without the stake. And so architectural. We did work to keep the stems clean of dead leaves (and free of spiders and cockroaches and millipedes and snails) and to remove dead flower stalks (after the seeds had been gathered)

My No. 1 plant was and remains Aloe plicatilis - the Fan Aloe or Book-leaf Aloe. It makes a telling garden shrub and a stunning potted specimen, especially if grown from a big cutting so that it quickly looks old and well established. Ours looked for all the world like some sort of gigantic succulent bonsai with a massive trunk and a dome of grey-green leaves. Then in winter the flowers - short spikes of rather fat looking coral red tubes, somewhat pinched at the outer end. Just a treat to see on the sunny side of the verandah or on the patio - we had one then; now it's a terrace!

Even if you don't want to buy a copy try to get GW Reynolds two books on Aloes from your library lending service THE ALOES OF SOUTH AFRICA and THE ALOES OF TROPICAL AFRICA and MADAGASSCAR to check out the HUGE variety and beauty of the genus. His background on history and native medicines using aloes is very interesting too. He also wrote THE ALOES OF SWAZILAND but I've only ever once seen it offerd for sale and din't have the wit to buy it at the time.

Amazin' things Aloes

regards

trevor n
Trevor Nottle
Garden Historian, Garden Writer, Designer, Consultant
WALNUT HILL, 5 Walker Street, Crafers, SA 5152 AUSTRALIA
Tel./ Fax. 61 8 83394210
















































   



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