In bud today, is a large, if not massive tree aloe which I brought back from a trip to California about a dozen years ago. This plant is beginning to get big, but it is hardly a tree, yet. It’s growing in a 14 clay pot and it really needs to be upgraded into a more impressive container this spring. My issue is that this plant forms buds every winter, but when we get frosty temps in the greenhouse in early December, it starts to droop, and then rots away, so I have never seen this giant Aloe in bloom, so this year, I brought the plant indoors to see if a sunny, cool window in the studio might help it survive the coldest greenhouse weeks of December and early January.
So far, so good – I’m especially lucky because Monday morning the greenhouse propane tank was empty, (which always seems to happen this around the first week of December because the gas company usually miscalculates the first delivery of the season), and the greenhouse frosted over with inside temperatures dropping near 26 degrees F.
There are many Aloe species, so get that image of the most common Aloe vera out of your head for just a moment. In warm climates, some Aloes can reach enormous sizes. Just google TREE ALOE and see what I mean.
It looked like most everything made it through the chill! Did I see a Christmas Cactus cutting rooting for me?