| It is not easy to kill an aloe by drought, if you want to kill an aloe quickly do it with water. |
| Note how the aloe leaves fold over thus protecting the center growing point of the rosette. |
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| The photo of Aloe Glauca a blue-green aloe from the karoo in South
Africa. The photo above left was taken close to 2 months before the photo
above. There was a good rain shower two weeks after this photo (left) was
taken. Then a month passed and the winter rain arrived with days of rain on and
off. The photo above right was taken some 8-10 days after the winter rain
began. After the first shower nothing happened visibly but that rain shower and
short interval is necessary for the roots to start swelling out and to get ready for the
wet periods that follow the winter rain. In the few rare years where the winter rain started without a few preceding short showers we always lost some aloes due to rot. If an aloe is water sparingly but evenly all year round, it seldom rot. If the aloes have a long dry period, especialy if the dry period is through a hot summer, watering should be started slowly. On the photo above to the left of the aloe is Tylecodon, which sent out leaves at the first sign of rain and to the right of Aloe glauca is Aloe ramosissima. Aloe ramosissima seemed untouched by the drought but now that it doubled in size it is obvious that it was shriveled a lot. for more photos see our website |
