Revisiting the urban dinosaur garden: Winter edition
In December, I posted about the cycads here but today was another open day and now that it's winter, the aloes are in flower and stealing the show.
Aloe vanbalenii, aka Octopus aloe
The yellow-flowered form of Aloe arborescens
I was there at midday so the light is quite harsh but I did what I could. These stemmed aloes are at least 50-80 years old and around 4m tall.
Below, the more usual red flowered Aloe arborescens, tree-sized Euphorbia, tree aloes and our extremely blue winter skies.
Most people know these aloes and others as pot plants but planted in the soil in the right climate brings them to their full sizes: this Adenia guards the gate - I can only hope that my little one can reach this size.
Another large, old fat caudiciform: Pachypodium suandersii or Kudu lily has gone dormant for winter and shed most of its leaves.
I haven't been around much because my country is in an electrical crisis and we are having anything from 7 to 13 hours of blackouts a day, I went to the open day to escape yet another, when I'm home, my other online work has to take precedence but it was great to go out and see such beauty in among the miseries of winter without electricity. Some of the orchids in the garden are flowering happily in the cold too. Lessons in resilience there...
Ian, the creator of this garden is extremely generous and allowed me to take quite a few cuttings of various epiphytic cacti, his garden is an inspiration for me to create more shade and grow them at my place. I'll show those another time
What an amazing visual display of form and colour. They make our northern little plants seem so pitiful when compared to these robust extravagant greenery.
Robust is a good word, their beauty isn't delicate
I see that. So cool 😀
The aloes are so huge there. My one wants to grow and grow and had flowers, the stems of the flowers have grown again so tall, but indeed, when in soil and not in a pot they grow more.
Yes, arborescence is actually a small tree and yours aspires to be one
Beautiful aloes! so nice to see them in their full glory. No chance of growing them outside here in Vermont haha.
photo credit wikipedia
When I was growing up we lived in Texas and Yucca plants like this were common. But not aloe.
I guess not!
Yuccas grow huge here, I always thought the century aloe, which is an agave was common in the South-west?
We lived in the Texas panhandle. Not much moisture, no shade, winters could get cold. I think agave does grow in south Texas and Arizona. Texas is a big state. A whole nother country as they say down there 🙄
in more ways than one it seems 😉
It all looks amazing and so different from our nature. We usually only see succulents in flower pots)
Your world does look much softer than ours. Good luck with the succulents you got recently
Loved to discover this garden from the depths of time... We could really imagine a dinosaur turning its head between two aloes ^^
I've seen the two episodes you've shared and it's interesting to see how plants grow in their natural conditions, whenever I've seen some of these specimens in greenhouses, but even so, they lack the necessary warmth and sunshine.. and so you can clearly see the difference !
It's nice you was able to take some cuttings from this place, thanks you for taking us along 😊🌱 !
It's a pleasure! It's always interesting to see how succulents make the transition in other climates
Definitely, even with creating the rights conditions, it's always more successful in their natural ones !
Have a good starting week 😇
What a beautiful jungle. It is all so wild... I forgot the heights wild aloe scales but here we are 🌵
African plants are beautiful sculptures
Nice experience ❤😊 This is amizing.
Thank you!
Hi there @nikv, those giant aloe trees are unbelievable. I am impressed with their longevity, what a bummer with all the blackouts, hang in there my friend.
Nice post.
Incredible place, I really loved the site and the quantity and size of the plants, I didn't know about the electricity crisis, in my city we have started to suffer from blackouts almost daily, they don't last more than 5 minutes and it's enough to stress me out haha, I guess in a situation like yours and if the weather wasn't so hot I would spend most of the day between the trees in the parks and out of the city.
P.S. today I'm going to make you want to graft plants haha.
You made me want to graft plants! One thing I do when the blackouts are on during the day is manual labour outside so I am busy creating a new rock garden. You'll see it in a while
Giant aloe! Never seen them so big and tall! Lovely weather with blue sky.
Thank you!
7 to 13 hours of blackouts a day! That was annoying!
Yes! All due to incompetence and corruption!
That's what Filipinos like me hate, corruption!
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STOPHow nice to see a post from you! My goodness this place is spectacular! Lucky you that you can grow such gorgeous stuff at your own home. I look forward to your posts on that.
I'm trying to get back into the posting rhythm, it's been hard to be motivated recently
Hello, @nikv
Honestly, this is the first time I knew that Aloe can be sooo tall like that. Thank you so much, your post giving me new information and I enjoy your pictures.
Greetings from Indonesia.
Thank you and greetings from South Africa.
Only certain types of aloes get this tall but they only do it here in Africa, their home
I really like Aloe!
I really like Aloe!
And I really liked the Cymbidium!
Did they give you his offspring?
I didn't think to ask, next time I will. I got some different types of rhipsalis, hoya and Leontis
A lush and exotic garden from my point of view..
It certainly is!