One of the many, and I mean many, benefits of living in a frost free land is that plants that are common around the world have the wiggle room to perform as they should in nature.
Like my Aloe Vera in the yard. Only in the right conditions will it annually flower. I keep a few around to handle scrapes, burns and cuts, but the yearly flower display is an additional benefit. The hummingbirds and bees love to get all up in it.
This year, I decided to take a photo every few days to just document the flowers development. While not a showy bloom, I still love to look upon it. So now I’ll force you to look upon it as well.
You can see the beginnings of another bloom behind this one as well. The cones flower at the base and work their way up. The bottom blooms begin to die off before the top ones are even open so it’s hard to get the “sweet shot” of this flower.
Winter is when all my succulents begin to bloom like crazy which is great because that means at any given time of the year, something in the yard is giving me a show.
For the rest of the country buried in snow and bolstered against the bitter cold, I offer you my warmest of condolences and a speedy Spring.
I’ve never seen aloe Vera bloom before. How interesting. Can you use the flowers for anything? I know the leaves are good for cuts, scrapes, burns etc.
I’m not sure if the flowers are used for anything. I couldn’t find anything in my research. If anyone knows of any, I’d love to hear it!
Nice one James!
Cute little thing. Would aloe vera grow well indoors (in sunny SD) with north- and west-facing windows?
Aloe Vera will do well indoors. Best to keep it in a bright area but away from direct sunlight. It won’t flower easily indoors if at all, but if you’re looking to simply have some on hand for cuts and burns and the like, you’ll be pleasantly surprised on how well it can do by the window. A tray of water under the pot will help increase humidity. Just make sure the pot is not sitting in water or you’ll get root rot. Usually peppels work well to raise it out of the water. Maybe you know someone who can give you a cutting? 😉
Hmmm, let me sift through my mental Rolodex to think if I know anyone growing aloe vera…nope, nope…I’m going to City Farmers this weekend to pick up some hay 😉 so maybe I’ll see what they have on hand.
By the way, we’re planning to add our fig tree, aloe Vera, and some other plants into our space once the furniture shifting is done. Perhaps someone could come over for a plant consultation…
Yes to all! The fiddle leaf fig will look so nice in your place. And it cleans the air. It’s a win win.
What a lovely Aloe Vera, an amazing plant. By the way, you are not coming up in my reader/blogs I follow at the moment, must check that out and rectify it 🙂
Yeah, same with you. In fact I sent you an email asking if you were still blogging. Disregard that one, I found you the old fashioned way. Thanks for the heads up, I’ll contact WordPress and see what’s happening…
Thanks James, you are very thoughtful, yes I replied you.
I just enjoy our over the pond correspondences. Wouldn’t want to lose that.
Yes I agree, they are entertaining and also full of good tips, very enjoyable 🙂
Well, I figured out what was wrong. I was adding too many tags! If you add more than 15 tags AND categories in WordPress, you do not show up in the reader feed. I’ve been shooting myself in the foot for the meatier posts. It explains why I sometimes feel snuffed by my friends and co-writers on certain posts. It shant happen again!!
Well that is a great bit of information James, thanks for that, I always thought that the more tags the better as people would find your post! 🙂 so I have perhaps also been shooting myself in the foot. We live and learn.
I think it only effects the WordPress reader. But yeah, I missed that PSA as well. Live, learn, repeat.