Aloes

I was wowed by the three flowers on my aloe that I photographed yesterday morning (first photo). I bought it three years ago from Lyle Filippe at Roraima Nursery in Lara near Geelong. He had a long bank of them in the central bed of his carpark and when I visited they were in full magnificent bloom in July that year (second photo). Aloe arborescens x ferox is a great bird attractor when in bloom (can you see the honeyeater in the second photo? he turned his head away at precisely the moment I took the photo!). My plant had no flowers the first year, a solitary flower in its second year and now three this year! It is planted in the corner of an extremely dry bed where it receives baking sun almost all day. It has never looked back from the day I planted it and I am hoping it will fill its allotted corner as it is the latest in a long line of deceased plants which have gone before it! This aloe comes from South Africa and its spines are strangely soft - they look fierce but they're not.

Aloes appear to be on their way up judging by the increasing numbers of species being seen in nurseries. Including one Qld nursery that is releasing gorgeous named cultivars that I am dying to get my hands on! I have quite a few species of aloe in my garden now. I have several pots of the fascinating Aloe polyphylla - because I love its perfect spiral form. Mine don't seem to want to grow like that though - they just seem to want to keep having pups rather than staying single and growing large! I am also fond of Aloe plicatilis (third photo): cuttings of which were given to me by a great friend. The way its leaves are pressed togther like the pages of a book never fails to catch my eye, which is just as well because it's flower is an uninspiring shade of orange.

http://www.roraimanursery.com.au/