Happiness month day 16 – Repotting aloe vera babies

aloe-vera-repotLast week I visited a friend who had an aloe vera falling out of its pot. The aloe vera looked very happy and healthy despite its tiny, cramped home but had eight babies of varying sizes who were getting pushed out. My friend offered them to me, and as I’m frequently burning myself in the kitchen I accepted gratefully.

But then my lazy streak kicked in and the plants sat on the work surface looking at me, still wrapped in their tissue paper. Thankfully, a few days out of the soil does little harm to these hardy fellas but as I procrastinated about planting them – wrong pots, wrong soil, too tired … I was reminded of my husband’s simple line when we were discussing the garden the other day: “You can show your appreciation by making the most of the crop”.

What was a chore because a moment of pleasure – I mixed up some sand, gravel and soil and gave these aloes a new home. Of course I had the right pots and could create the right soil; I just needed to get over my own laziness!

Aloe veras are one of the greatest healing gifts from nature, they were a gift from my friend and so I honoured that gift by ‘planting the crop’. I even made them into a mini dessert landscape by putting stones around the plants to keep them in place. They make me smile when I look at them because that’s the sort of thing I would have done as a child.

As I’ve never had much success keeping aloe vera plants alive I’d love to hear your tips in the comments below!

2 Comments

  1. Stuart on August 30, 2011 at 10:25 pm

    Put a small layer of stones in the bottom of the pot, and make sure you don’t overwater them.

    Dont try to transplant new shoots that are too small, as these often die.

    Add a little compost occasionally to the top of the earth.

    Sometimes earthenware type pots seem to have a detrimental effect to aloe vera imo.



  2. Mrs Green on September 7, 2011 at 10:51 am

    @Stuart: thanks for the tip about not transporting the tiny shoots – some of mine are very small but they seem to be hanging on in there; we shall see 🙂