Decorating Cacti And Succulents

Before I wrote the "Fake flowers on Cacti" entry I e-mailed the two largest cacti & succulent wholesalers I was familiar with from the big box garden centers. I didn't get a response from either one but I thought about those two companies again when I wrote the "More cacti abuse" entry on Halloween and posted a photo of a cactus with googly eyes from Altman Plants. One of the comments in that entry was from NuSuki who provided links to photos of similarly decorated C&S in Spain.

Growing Aloe Vera From Cuttings

A visitor to this gardening blog e-mailed me to ask if it was possible to propagate and grow Aloe vera from cuttings. Honestly, I've never tried it but everything I've read about Aloes indicates that they can't be propagated through leaf cuttings. But it is possible to propagate an Aloe vegetatively by removing a pup or by rhizome cuttings though.

But there are the Aloe vera hybrids that have been crossed with related succulents like my xGasteraloe 'Green Ice' which is reported to be a cross between a Gasteria 'Old Man Silver' x Aloe variegata. When I bought that plant there was one leaf that was much larger than the whole plant and has now died, that's a big clue that it was propagated by a leaf cutting.

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