October 26: Aloe
Oct. 27th, 2010 05:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neverspentI've never been much for houseplants; there were always so many wonderful ones outdoors, and I'm much more interested in wild plants and ones you can eat. However, a few years ago a friend gave me some aloe pups and some jade cuttings. I took them because she liked them so much, and I thought a challenge would be nice. And besides, I can never resist free or homeless plants, whether they come up volunteer in the garden, they're abandoned next to the dumpster (which is how I got the pot of mums I've had for several years) or they come in the mail in a ziplock bag.
That was five years ago.
I didn't think I'd become particularly fond of the aloes. They're so spiky and spidery and their appearance seems to say "don't touch me." I was used to leaves with veins and lobes. I didn't even know if I'd be able to keep a cactus type plant alive. But the aloe thrived and started having puppies. Holy cow. Pups everywhere.
And eventually, when the original plant reached a very mature size and its asexually produced children were threatening to take over my study and I'd already divided them two or three times, I realized... aloes are sexy.
I mean, from an aesthetic perspective. They're very male, all spiky and pointy as I mentioned, but at the same time they're female, plump and curvy. They also glow beautifully when there's sunlight behind them.
I was thinking about all this because it's past time to divide the aloes again, and one of them was so big it was literally pushing and pulling itself out of the pot. So I spent part of this afternoon re-potting, running out of soil, and finding out that the much larger pot I'd bought was still too small. And I need about six more pots. The aloes are taking over!
That was five years ago.
I didn't think I'd become particularly fond of the aloes. They're so spiky and spidery and their appearance seems to say "don't touch me." I was used to leaves with veins and lobes. I didn't even know if I'd be able to keep a cactus type plant alive. But the aloe thrived and started having puppies. Holy cow. Pups everywhere.
And eventually, when the original plant reached a very mature size and its asexually produced children were threatening to take over my study and I'd already divided them two or three times, I realized... aloes are sexy.
I mean, from an aesthetic perspective. They're very male, all spiky and pointy as I mentioned, but at the same time they're female, plump and curvy. They also glow beautifully when there's sunlight behind them.
I was thinking about all this because it's past time to divide the aloes again, and one of them was so big it was literally pushing and pulling itself out of the pot. So I spent part of this afternoon re-potting, running out of soil, and finding out that the much larger pot I'd bought was still too small. And I need about six more pots. The aloes are taking over!