She said it was at least 25 years old. Easily 4 feet tall.

Yes, that is big. But aren't there Tree Aloes? They get (a guess) 20-30' tall. Gene

gasrocks said:Yes, that is big. But aren't there Tree Aloes? They get (a guess) 20-30' tall. Gene

Just looked it up, yea there are.

A few lil' ones at the Huntington Gardens....



But hey the plant in the first picture looks pretty good to me!

Thst is awesome at Huntington ty!! How slow does aloe grow, and how much money can you get

That particular tree is pretty quick (as aloe trees go anyway) but a young seedling probably wouldn't get that big in your lifetime. It grows very differently depending on how much water you give it (total opportunist) and what kind of soil it's in. Obviously it would be seriously limited (and probably quite frustrated) after many years in a container.

There's another aloe called "Hercules" (a hybrid between two large trees) which grows humongous as well, but it has a gnarly bark and a bit more attitude. You'd be surprised at the diversity of tree aloes, something which is generally best appreciated in the flowers. Here's one of the so-called "single stemmed" tree aloes (no branching just one big fat rosette on a stem that grows to about 15 feet tall with advanced age).



And the flowers have some very rich colors when they open.



The tree aloes tend to put out these spectacular flowers once a year, after they get to a certain age. Here are a few tree aloe flowers from this winter... a couple of these are hybrids that I grew from seed.

Wow are those your plants? And isn't it something that some plants don't flower yearly, really gives appreciation where it is deserved...

Yeah, kind of my thing. Only possible because we have no cold temps. My avatar is a tree aloe, the fan aloe.

My plants have ended up in various locations around here. When you grow them from seed (which the single stemmed tree aloes require) they show all sorts of interesting variation. A fast plant might take about 5 years from seed to flower.

On top of the inherent variation, aloes are very promiscuous, which means that just about any two plants within the distance of a hummingbird's flight path can make hybrid offspring. Around here maybe 15-20 different aloes flowered this winter so the potential for interesting combinations is pretty good.

Amazing, do you sell them? How much does it go for? So they sell it by the leaf?

My cost in materials to grow a tree aloe to 3 gallon size (approximately when they flower) is about $5, without the benefit of scale. The sale price for that size would be about $20 if you were to seek one out in say a nursery in San Diego, where they are relatively available. But as I like to think, the one-of-a-kind hybrid tree aloe is priceless.

The leaf wouldn't do you much good (most of these are not medicinal aloes) and it does not help with propagation. The only medicinal aloe pictured above is the Cape aloe with the red flowers in the first picture of six. That is one case where the leaves are harvested and the juice collected for herbal medicine. I have not tried this but it's the right plant.

The plant in your picture looks like Aloe vera, another medicinal aloe, whose main use is topical, for skin problems.

Interesting, god love this site.... always SOMEONE specializing in SOME plant :D

Aloe dichotoma



James

Which coincidentally is the other parent of the aforementioned "Hercules".

Here is a young "Hercules" (which was growing in a 6 inch pot 6 years ago, and has been receiving only our 10 inches of annual rainfall for most of that time) with something interesting going on. This is what happens when you decapitate one of these plants in the right place. The plant had one single head (atop a pretty fat trunk as you can see) when I did the surgery a couple of years ago. It spent about 6 months thinking about what to do, then buds started popping at the base of the leaves.

At some point I will probably harvest most of those 15-20 new branches and use them to start new trees. Thinking long term here of course.

Amazing, thinking now, she does have aloe trees in there, your picture james reminded me of them. At least 1. ALSO, this is a very neat video on plants, I urge you to watch. A plant that can lose 95% of its moisture, essentially dying for a prolonged period, via droughts. And then coming back to life, there is a lapse in it somewhere for the process it's remarkable! https://youtu.be/CXbSoEF3xb0

Baja,
In your first group of photos what is the name of this one;


I have this one purchased at a big box store.
Thinking the name is Gastroaloe Gastrolea Gasteraloe cv Flow Ø10-11cm Gasteria x Aloe Hybrid Plant




Good look and maybe not.
More like this;

Very nice photos guys. Some real impressive Aloes. Good job on them.

Here's some of my favorites. The first few are an A. Ferox I saw in a public parking lot. Wish I could claim it as my own.

Stush, the plant pictured is a hybrid between ramosissima (branching tree aloe) and erinacea (small spiny aloe). It does look a bit like brevifolia but the parentage is more exotic.

Sexy flowers!

Baja,
I have a lot of Aloes that I don't know the Id's Many grown from seed. When I get the chance to re-pot them, I will start a post of trying to ID them. Hope you help me. And thanks for the info.
Stush