The Aloes Are Waking Up



Aloe 'Grassy Lassy'
There are Aloes blooming year round in the garden, but November always feels like the start of Aloe "season", because the most spectacular flowers are produced by late fall, winter and spring bloomers.
Like Aloe thraskii
  Aloe suprafoliata
 Aloe megalacantha has been blooming since spring, and continues to.

 'Cynthia Giddy' is finishing up.  When did it start?  July?  It made a lot of hummingbirds chubby.  Most of the birds zipping around the garden are as round as golf balls.  
 'Rooikappie' blooms off and on year round.  'Rooikappie' sold here are often infected with Aloe Gall Mite, but I happened to have bought an uninfected plant.  Looking around the internet for the correct spelling of this hybrid, I found it was introduced by South African horticulturist Cynthia Giddy.  It is an open-pollinated seedling of Aloe sinkatana--not sure if that is the "real" sinkatana or the Aloe Formerly Known As Sinkatana, now identified as Aloe zubb.
 Aloe deltoideodonta var fallax (if that is what its real name is) bloomed about six weeks ago.  Seed pods:
 Tiny plant of uncommon castellone bloomed!  That was a surprise. 
 Aloe Deltoideodonta 'Sparkler' is a lovely, lovely plant.  The flowers are beside the point.  It was Very Unhappy in the ground, the only Aloe I've ever found to be so. 
 Tiny Aloe relative Gasteria lilliputiana
 It's been wonderfully cool all week, but I've been painting, painting, painting indoors.  The dining room and living room are done.  I'm going to finish the entry way, then give the painting a rest and get back out there while the cool weather holds. 
A long way to go up.
 

Comments

  1. Your aloes are further along than mine. I've only spotted flower stalks on my Aloe cameronii x maculata.

    That ladder is scary tall. Be safe!

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    1. You getting some rain up north? Just a tantalizing sprinkle here. Cameronii is beautiful burgundy red here, like the trunk of Manzanitas, but no flower stems yet.

      It is, and I am. Must get back out there, you know.

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  2. Yikes! I always stick my husband with painting the ceilings. My resident hummingbirds aren't chubby, which I guess means I need to invest in more aloes!

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    1. Grevilleas and Salvias plump them up, too. If nothing else this garden is a hummer feed lot.

      I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to paint the ceilings--they are too tall!

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    2. When young and foolish I did a paint effects ceiling in our bedroom.
      NEVER again. That is such hard work painting overhead!!

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    3. Ceilings are the toughest, yes! Most everyone does a lot of foolish stuff when they are young--painting a ceiling is on the lesser end of the spectrum, no?

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  3. Beautiful Aloes! Hummingbirds love the Aloe flowers in my garden, I only have 4 different types. one is Aloe Saponaria (with orange flowers) but I am not sure about the others. I have Gasteria lilliputiana too, it recently bloomed, absolutely beautiful and unexpected since it was "quiet" for years. Have a lovely weekend!

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    1. A look online makes me think Argentina has some quite spectacular hummingbird species--they must be something to see. How fun that your Gasteria bloomed also--the flowers are even more dainty than the plant, yes?

      Have a beautiful weekend, MDN.

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  4. Jeepers. Please be careful on that ladder!

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    1. My sister teaches worker safety classes and she taught me how to place ladders, and all the rest of working with them (no leaning! no reaching!). I am extremely careful--that's part of the reason why it's taking so long to get the painting done. But yeah, it's also somewhat terrifying. By the time I finish, a Half Dome ascent will be a breeze.

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  5. I just rescued some Aloe 'Sparkler' yesterday, leaving one pup in the ground. I've had lots of issues with aloes in the ground vs. pots. Aloe conifera comes immediately to mind. Can't wait to see these aloes in person!

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    1. I can tell you for 100% sure cover 'Sparkler' when it rains. It don't like water sitting in it for any amount of time. Same thing for the other deltoideodontas.

      Should be a good event Thursday! See you then! :)

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  6. Yikes, I always wondered how people paint those walls or even change light bulbs. Be careful of course!
    Love all the orange bloomers. Even here when an aloe blooms the hummers get excited.

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    1. I want to change out those light bulbs for LEDs, matter of fact...can't do it with the ladder.

      I finished up with the tallest walls today--yay!

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  7. I love your succulents! I have been so ignorant of these plants until just the past couple of years. Mine have to be grown in pots and brought inside for winter, but I have found them worth the effort. I was totally surpassed when one of them produced lovely blooms this year, not once or twice, but several times! It arrived without a name, but it looks much like your Aloe 'Sparkler.'

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    1. They are fun little plants; a nice way to have a touch of an exotic climate. :) You might try a Sempervivum or two, as they are cold-hardy, but they may have difficulty with your humid summers--grown at an angle for drainage, in grit, perhaps?

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  8. Good morning, Aloes...oh, how I wish you could bemine.

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    1. Sempervivums, Lewisias! Aloe polyphylla! (Have you tried that one?)

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