My Aloe plants are beginning to flower!

Cathie G

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Sorry for the bad pics, I had trouble with lighting and all the aloe prawns look the same! Anyways... I have 4 or 5 Aloe plants beginning to flower. All of these aloe plants have made many clones. 1 bought very tiny from Lowe’s 3 years ago, 1 of its clones is flowering also. The other mother plant and clones that are beginning to flower I got for free outfront a neighbors house 2 years ago maybe. I super amazed for some reason, never even considered them flowering. Anyone else with flowering Aloe?
View attachment 313136View attachment 313137View attachment 313138View attachment 313139
I bought a couple from Lowe's once and gave one to a brother. The darn thing flowered. I didn't know they would either at that point or I would have given him the other one.? But I guess they are like a cactus or maybe there is male and female plants.
 

queen koopa

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I bought a couple from Lowe's once and gave one to a brother. The darn thing flowered. I didn't know they would either at that point or I would have given him the other one.? But I guess they are like a cactus or maybe there is male and female plants.
I’m going to look into this..... ?
 

Cathie G

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I’m going to look into this..... ?
Tell me what you find if you don't mind. I'm older and have never seen that before. Another thing I found interesting was we both bought them at Lowes. It's funny also that the aloe that flowered was a gift from my salesman. It was petering out and he thought maybe I could save it.?
 

ZEROPILOT

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Looks like your plant could use a good soaking.... where have I seen soaking before?
I don't water them.
I don't even look at them.
The ones planted in the back yard grow better than the few in pots.
They would all do better with more watering. I initially planted 6 or 8 of them to use sporadically as tortoise food. Then I found that my tortoises didn't eat it. So I kind of left the plants to fend for themselves. That was at least 10 years ago for most of them.
 

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I bought a couple from Lowe's once and gave one to a brother. The darn thing flowered. I didn't know they would either at that point or I would have given him the other one.? But I guess they are like a cactus or maybe there is male and female plants.

The males are not all bad!

I went to fuerteventura once. It is supposedly the island where aloe Vera evolved... an incredibly strange place and a really terrible holiday destination. What I came away with, apart from a bad sunburn, was the nack of telling a male from a female.

Basically the females are the ones with the spindlier type leaves, significantly thinner than the males and more of a perfect triangle shape. The males are the ones you see with very broad leaves and often a bulge between the base and the tip. I always assumed that they were a different species. Males grow faster and are probably the ones you want if you plan on harvesting your aloe. More bang for your buck 'meat' wise.

I once moved into a house with a spare bedroom. The spare room had several uses over time but I never spent much time in there except perhaps preparing a bed for a guest or hoovering. A full 2 years later realised that in the corner of the windowsill, behind the curtain, I had put an aloe plant which had not had a drop of water in that time. It was dark purple and looking very sad but perked right up immediately after a watering and eventually thrived outdoors.
 

ArmadilloPup

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Mine started flowering after I brought them in, around late December to early January. This was a first time for me, and I've had aloes my entire life, though I haven't always lived in a subtropical climate. I give them a tiny drink before bed, but I assumed it was the shorter hours of light that did it (like with poinsettias). Here's what's left of one, it's so tall I can't even get it all in the frame!

IMG_0334.jpg
 

MEEJogja

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Mine started flowering after I brought them in, around late December to early January. This was a first time for me, and I've had aloes my entire life, though I haven't always lived in a subtropical climate. I give them a tiny drink before bed, but I assumed it was the shorter hours of light that did it (like with poinsettias). Here's what's left of one, it's so tall I can't even get it all in the frame!

View attachment 316775

Amazing! Fuerteventura is very dry and arid... I wonder if the incredibly tall flower benefits it by making it more visible to pollinators, or this is just a leftover from further down the evolutionary tree. Here's an image of a similar plant that I have been watching with interest for a couple of years. The flower stem grows 2+ stories tall in a matter of days. One year the flower stem was so tall and heavy it fell over and uprooted the plant!

Screenshot_2021-01-31-11-05-53-385_com.google.android.apps.photos.jpg
 

queen koopa

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Amazing! Fuerteventura is very dry and arid... I wonder if the incredibly tall flower benefits it by making it more visible to pollinators, or this is just a leftover from further down the evolutionary tree. Here's an image of a similar plant that I have been watching with interest for a couple of years. The flower stem grows 2+ stories tall in a matter of days. One year the flower stem was so tall and heavy it fell over and uprooted the plant!

View attachment 316781
Holy crap!
 

queen koopa

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Mine started flowering after I brought them in, around late December to early January. This was a first time for me, and I've had aloes my entire life, though I haven't always lived in a subtropical climate. I give them a tiny drink before bed, but I assumed it was the shorter hours of light that did it (like with poinsettias). Here's what's left of one, it's so tall I can't even get it all in the frame!

View attachment 316775
The males are not all bad!

I went to fuerteventura once. It is supposedly the island where aloe Vera evolved... an incredibly strange place and a really terrible holiday destination. What I came away with, apart from a bad sunburn, was the nack of telling a male from a female.

Basically the females are the ones with the spindlier type leaves, significantly thinner than the males and more of a perfect triangle shape. The males are the ones you see with very broad leaves and often a bulge between the base and the tip. I always assumed that they were a different species. Males grow faster and are probably the ones you want if you plan on harvesting your aloe. More bang for your buck 'meat' wise.

I once moved into a house with a spare bedroom. The spare room had several uses over time but I never spent much time in there except perhaps preparing a bed for a guest or hoovering. A full 2 years later realised that in the corner of the windowsill, behind the curtain, I had put an aloe plant which had not had a drop of water in that time. It was dark purple and looking very sad but perked right up immediately after a watering and eventually thrived outdoors.
So from your description I think I have all female. See tons of clones (pups?) from all of them. Do only females have flowers? Forgive me if thats a stupid question. I have a brief understanding of pollination when it comes to male and female flowers on fruiting plants like pumpkin and squash...
 

Cathie G

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The males are not all bad!

I went to fuerteventura once. It is supposedly the island where aloe Vera evolved... an incredibly strange place and a really terrible holiday destination. What I came away with, apart from a bad sunburn, was the nack of telling a male from a female.

Basically the females are the ones with the spindlier type leaves, significantly thinner than the males and more of a perfect triangle shape. The males are the ones you see with very broad leaves and often a bulge between the base and the tip. I always assumed that they were a different species. Males grow faster and are probably the ones you want if you plan on harvesting your aloe. More bang for your buck 'meat' wise.

I once moved into a house with a spare bedroom. The spare room had several uses over time but I never spent much time in there except perhaps preparing a bed for a guest or hoovering. A full 2 years later realised that in the corner of the windowsill, behind the curtain, I had put an aloe plant which had not had a drop of water in that time. It was dark purple and looking very sad but perked right up immediately after a watering and eventually thrived outdoors.
Thanks I'm going to remember that. I kinda thought maybe that was the case that there actually is male and female aloe. At least after having only one sprout a flower in my lifetime. Evidently Lowe's isn't stingy with the females.? I'm going to keep my eyes peeled.
 

Cathie G

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I don't water them.
I don't even look at them.
The ones planted in the back yard grow better than the few in pots.
They would all do better with more watering. I initially planted 6 or 8 of them to use sporadically as tortoise food. Then I found that my tortoises didn't eat it. So I kind of left the plants to fend for themselves. That was at least 10 years ago for most of them.
You could always use them for a slight burn. That's how I got interested in them many moons ago.?
 

MEEJogja

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So from your description I think I have all female. See tons of clones (pups?) from all of them. Do only females have flowers? Forgive me if thats a stupid question. I have a brief understanding of pollination when it comes to male and female flowers on fruiting plants like pumpkin and squash...

Not a stupid question at all. Especially after I had no luck at all googling it to try to illustrate a male flower.
On most succulents the male and females both flower, and the flowers are so similar it is impossible to tell them apart from any distance.

It's only the females that put out pups, and your pictures both look female to me (I hope my nack hasn't warn off!).
 

Cathie G

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Not a stupid question at all. Especially after I had no luck at all googling it to try to illustrate a male flower.
On most succulents the male and females both flower, and the flowers are so similar it is impossible to tell them apart from any distance.

It's only the females that put out pups, and your pictures both look female to me (I hope my nack hasn't warn off!).
Interesting because the plant I gave my brother did have a new baby also. The whole plant was in bad shape. Just replanting it revived it and then it flowered on top of that.
 

queen koopa

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Oh my big girl is now starting. Ive had it in that pot for almost 2 years, it was one of the 3 I got from Lowe’s 3 yrs ago. Throughout 2020 I grew echinacea in the same pot along with a wandering jew cutting. It has produced tons pups (thanks for the new verbiage I learned in this thread)
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