We've gone tree Aloe mad

Aloe sp.

At the last volunteer workday, Josh planted a tree Aloe in the brights bed. And last weekend, Matt and I planted more tree Aloes, bringing PG's total up to five - almost. Kinda.

We have had one tree aloe for many years. Our Aloe ferox, was planted in 2009 and it's now an impressive specimen in the cactus wall bed, although like all of them it'll be another decade before it attains actual tree status. It flowers every year and puts on quite a show. You can read about it in the Plant Profile, here.

A. thraskii

The one Josh planted was a donation from Mat at Farallon Gardens. This big Aloe thraskii took a bit of a beating in transit sadly, but I expct it will go bananas soon. It will eventually hit 10' tall, and they remain an unbranched columnar plant, instead of a wide branching tree - like Aloe ferox.

We used to have an Aloe "Goliath" at the garden, but had to move it twice as it wasn't thriving - the last time, to a pot where it recovered very nicely at home.

A. "Goliath"

Now that we have a bit of water access, the time is right to replant it at PG and it's in the left bed now.

This cross of the large South African tree aloe, Aloe barberae (aka A. bainesii), and Aloe vaombe from Madagascar usually grows really quickly to about 10' tall, but they also tend to have spindly trunks and fall over. We will stake this one up safely.

John gave us a Craigslist rescue Aloe a while back too. Now that it's grown lots of roots we put it in at the garden last weekend. The species is unknown though - it could be another ferox? But it certainly has a trunk so we shall see what it does. It's in the middle back bed.

The last big guy hasn't been planted yet. We have a 15 gallon Aloe barberae (aka A. bainesii) at home, and will plant it in the garden soon. This will be a massive tree in a couple decades, up to 30' tall with loads of branches. It has salmon-pink flowers too - hope I get to see them one day!