I'm not an aloe murderer!!!

graphic courtesy of http://www.globalherbalsupplies.com/herb_information/aloe_vera.htm

Will wonders never cease? Granted, it's the only thing I've managed to keep alive on that porch without serious sun damage, but I really thought that I'd be facing some sad looking plants when I got off work yesterday. Instead, the rain was exactly what that potting soil needed to give it the necessary density to hold my fragile fronds. And the water did wonders for every pot; their color was starting to pink up from all the sun, but I faced some nice green aloe in the 4 transplant pots and even a new baby or two poking its head above the soil.

Big boy Sylvester surprisingly, is the one needing a little TLC. He's comprised of 2 quite large plants in a big-ass pot, but it's evident that from the manner/direction he's growing, he's about to seriously outgrow the pot on one side. His bottom leaves are dying off, which is probably natural, but it still appears that he needs to be separated from his twin. Aloe can survive on shallower pots than I've got (their roots grow laterally rather than southward), but his general size would still be the issue--I will officially run out of room on the porch if I separate them into 2 pots, so I think Mom is going to have to inherit one of them. Better to cut some of the cord now, since at the rate I'm going, all the KBers will be gettting some aloe before we move to SC next year.

Would love to pass some onto Miss Terra, but when I think about it, all I picture is their minivan packed to the very ceiling with their livelihood that couldn't fit in the moving van, plus the infant and 5-year-old clamoring for attention at every rest stop. I'm thinking plants are low on the list of things meant to survive that cross-country trip. She put some beautiful pictures up on her blog (link at left) of where they're headed; just makes me ache. They're so far north, it was frickin' 42 degrees at 5:30 a.m.! It'll be 6 months before we see those temps here again :(

Crud. I need to focus or I'll spend the whole day reading Columbia, SC websites and trying to plan for next year instead of, you know, editing websites.