{"id":97338,"date":"2021-01-20T17:57:43","date_gmt":"2021-01-20T21:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=97338"},"modified":"2021-01-28T16:46:37","modified_gmt":"2021-01-28T20:46:37","slug":"theres-a-lot-to-love-about-aloes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=97338","title":{"rendered":"there’s a lot to love about aloes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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multi-branched inflorescence of Aloe dawae ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ January 2021<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I doubt I’ll ever be able to get my arms entirely around this name-changing, shape-shifting succulent genus. Its riches of flower and leaf can make winnowing out selections for a small garden woefully dependent on serendipity — on what’s available locally, what was last seen in bloom, which aloe was last extolled in a book or article you read or botanical garden visited. Forget about approaching this genus systematically. With a genus so vast in size, habit, color, season of bloom, it’s kind of liberating to know that any choice you make will be based on whatever information you had available at the moment and will always be subject to constant reappraisal. Be warned, this is a very intoxicating group of plants from select geographic areas of the globe like South Africa and Madagascar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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winter-blooming Aloe cameronii<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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summer-blooming hybrid ‘Cynthia Giddy’ on the right in a mixed planting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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winter-blooming Aloe ferox<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Aloe camperi, May at the Huntington<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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mixed aloe planting at the Taft garden, March, Ojai, California<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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one of the many small hybrids available<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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in bloom here in February, Aloe conifera<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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in bloom here in November, Aloe scobinifolia<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Aloe polyphylla, the spiral aloe, in my garden 2010<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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spiral aloe, Sherman Gardens, Corona del Mar, Calif.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Probably because of my enthusiasm for agaves, some of the first aloes I grew were selected based on their leaves, like the impossible-to-make-happy spiral aloe. But when the door on the aloe kingdom gets cracked open, even a casual grower soon becomes snared and then spoiled by choice; the spotted aloes, the stemless aloes, the shrubby aloes, the tree aloes, the hybrids grown for flowers, the hybrids grown for bizarro foliar effects, the solitary types, the clumpers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the Quiver Tree, Aloidendron dichotomum, at the Huntington<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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mass planting of tree aloe, Aloidendron’Hercules’ with barrel cactus, Palm Springs, Calif.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Aloidendron ‘Hercules’ at the Huntington<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Aloidendron ‘Goliath’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Aloes in bloom in February in Long Beach, California<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Aloe rubroviolacea, January at the Huntington<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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possible arborescens hybrid, January at the Huntington<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Armed with a good reference book like Jeff Moore’s Aloes & Agaves In Cultivation<\/em>, it’s possible to dial in preferences based on size, flower style and season of bloom, e.g., winter-blooming, non-clumping, small rosettes with multibranched flowers. The Institute For Aloe Studies<\/a> is another good source of information, as is San Marcos Growers<\/a>. For seeing aloes in person, in Los Angeles it’s the Huntington, the LA Arboretum, and not too far north near Santa Barbara, Aloes in Wonderland — tickets need to be purchased in advance for all three online. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Aloe erinacea at the Huntington<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Mid-winter in Southern California is as good a time as any to deepen an acquaintance with this seductive genus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I doubt I’ll ever be able to get my arms entirely around this name-changing, shape-shifting succulent genus. Its riches of flower and leaf can make winnowing out selections for a small garden woefully dependent on serendipity — on what’s available … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-pjY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97338"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97338"}],"version-history":[{"count":34,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97618,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97338\/revisions\/97618"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}