Aloe cooperi

For whatever reason, this is the most exciting flower to me since, I don't know, the Beschorneria. I guess I have a problem with small and obscure succulents -- as long as they'll grow in the open garden.

Anyway, the grass Aloes (I think there are something like 6-10 species) are from eastern (i.e. summer-rainfall) South Africa. They both look like grass (kind of), and they grow among grasses. Here's an excellent blog post, and a predictably depressing discussion of their conservation status. At least some of them are winter deciduous, although mine hung onto its leaves last year. Are you paying attention yet? Summer rain + winter deciduous means you can grow them away from the west coast. Tony Avent says A. cooperi is hardy to Zone 7b. You can also order it from Annie's, sometimes.

Fun with flickr

Beware flickr maps. It's easy to go a little crazy on the exotic flora. If you stare at the original size of this photograph taken near Nieuwoudtville ZA , you will eventually see hundreds of young Aloe dichotoma trees dotting the hillside. [The yellow-flowered succulents in the foreground might be a Hoodia or Euphorbia, and I have no idea about the purple (Ericas?)]. Poke around fjordaan's photostream for more shots of this wonderful tree.

Unless it's A. pillansii, but I think it's too far south.

Winter

There's not much flowering these days, but the rosemary was utterly unconcerned with the frost. Oh, and: behold the new camera. Suddenly I seem like a semi-competent photographer. In fact, I am realizing that I need more winter flowers. For starters, the Agave attenuata I failed to protect from the frost is going to be replaced with an aloe -- I'm thinking A. cryptopoda but taking suggestions: think compact and floriferous.

Actually, I went to the botanic garden this wekend to check out aloes, brought the new camera, and forgot to photograph anything. Sorry.

The only other flowers in the back right now are the camellias and the Double Delight rose, which I'd much prefer dormant so I can cut it back. The other rose got pruned hard, went dormant, and awaits its dormant spray which I haven't got around to because I dread the smell so. I'm also procrastinating on putting in some Dahlias.

Report

Despite rain and fog, we've moved from the "second spring" into a kind of second summer. The lapageria has two flowers on it, and shockingly, I found a flower spike in the Hedychium I'd given up on. The neighbors' cannas were also sending up new spikes before being hacked senselessly to the ground.

On the other hand, we know winter's coming because the first Camellia flower appeared a week ago. And many precocious Aloe arborescens spikes are starting to flower around town. Interestingly, the massive, floriferous specimen with a south exposure that I pass every day hasn't done anything yet, while the spikes I've noticed have been on east- and north-facing plants. Hmmm, I wonder if I should put one in the front.

Harvested the pomegranates yesterday. One of them had split open so thoroughly that I decided, probably stupidly, to toss it, but I tried a few arils first. The flavor was good, although the sugar was too low, as feared. But that's a problem that can be corrected. With tequila.