Hello all, On my weekly visit to walmart (I have a lot of free time with only 12 hours of class a week :) ) I like to go into the back and see if I can find some nice marked down plants to save before they just throw them out. I was thinking about getting some half dead orchids left over from Valentines day when I saw these two little fellas. They were sitting in a big ben labeled CACTUS.so other than the fact that they arent actually cacti I know nothing about them. I figured the 79 cents they cost was worth a little mystery and saving them from the cruel fate of the walmart dumpster.
The first 2 can be Crassula lactea native to South Africa , the spotted aloe is very difficult to tell apart you need some flowers to id them when they are not in nature.
1. Do all aloes flower? 2. Would the plant ever flower in a pot that small(shot glass size)? I read somewhere that some species are very small and im assuming would do fine in a pot that size. But like you said i cant figure out the species without a flower. How much does the fact that it has leaves growing out of a stem, rather than a rosette at ground level, narrow it down?
1. YES all aloes flower! 2.Aloes must be mature plants and need sunlight to flower. 3.Dwarf aloes will be happy in a small pot. 4.The fact that you can see the stem is caused by the lack of light, you can see the white colour of the top internode and the leafs growing upwards , not a characteristic of an aloe. All sighns that your aloe is in desparate need for good sunlight.
Thanks, Guess the aloes flowering question was dumb. As i said i found them in a bin in a back room. What kind of light is best for them? The only window i have faces north west. With the buildings around i only get about 30 minutes of direct sunlight in the evening in one small corner of my room.
They will take all the light you can give them, you have to suppliment the sunlight with artificial light (grow light). At least 6 hours per day for them to be happy. You need to keep them fairly dry, an aloe can do without water but not without sufficient light. There is no dump questions, we cant know it all !!!!
