Aloe flowers - Nature's silent healer

 

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

Several Aloes have flowers with nectar that can be consumed. Among the sippable blossoms are A. ferox and A. marlothii. A. zebrina has edible flowers and buds after being boiled. In Angola they are pressed into cakes. A. greatheadii flower buds are a delicacy after being boiled in three changes of water. There is no report on the edibility of Aloe vera flowers. But since that plant is medicinal, I would not eat them.

The genus is native to Southern Africa.

Echeveria imbricata in wooden planter

W&N watercolour on small Bockingford 300gsm (5½" x 7½" – half of A4)

Echeveria imbricata in a wooden crate on my patio. Contrary to the belief that succulents are drought resistant, this Echeveria (E. imbricata) thrives on good soil and lots of rain.

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An African Moon in December

Black Pilot Lettering pen ink sketch of a full moon over my garden in Tarlton, Gauteng, South Africa

Sketching again...

Art thou pale for weariness
Of climbing heaven and gazing on the earth,
Wandering companionless
Among the stars that have a different birth,
And ever changing, like a Joyless eye
That finds no object worth its constancy?
- By Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792-1822)

Young Aloe ferox

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

My experience is that this aloe (A. ferox) spreads easily from seed – from my original three plants, I now have over ten. They have sprung up all over the garden, obviously from seeds dispersed by the wind and birds. The only problem is that some of them are in unwanted locations and now I have the job of moving them to more suitable spots. But a chore I’m going to enjoy!

Aloe ferox (also known as the Cape Aloe, Bitter Aloe, Red Aloe and Tap Aloe), is a species of arborescent aloe indigenous to Southern Africa.

Graptoveria "Fred Ives"

W&N watercolour on Bockingford 300gsm

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A succulent given to me by a friend a couple of months ago growing in a pot in my garden.

Category: Succulent
Family: Crassulaceae (Stonecrops)
Origin: Mexico (North America)

x Graptoveria ‘Fred Ives’ – A beautiful and durable succulent plant that produces large clumps of rosettes to 8 inches tall by nearly 1 foot wide with broad bronze and pink succulent leaves atop short stems with 1’-2’ long branched inflorescences bearing red-orange centered pale yellow flowers in summer. Plant in full to part sun in a well-drained soil. Little irrigation required.

The leaves are broad and stiff, overlapping each other, with concave upper surface, rubbery to the touch, waxy pearly-bronze to purplish yellow-orange to blue green (depending on time of year and growing conditons). Often shading from grey-blue at the centre out to orange-bronze-purple. The purple blush is fairly consistent throughout the seasons. Higher light and heat seem to increase the purple a bit, though.
This is a vigorous plant and is great as a container specimen or in the ground in well-drained soils or raised planters. It is reportedly a hybrid of Graptopetalum paraguayense crossed with a plant in the Echeveria gibbiflora complex.