Monday, November 04, 2013

Fun Monday - My Favorite Plant

As part of our Post-A-Day-in-November challenge, a few friends and I have decided to resurrect FUN MONDAY!
 
It all started when SwampWitch posted a picture of her crazy Christmas cactus on FaceBook and the idea took off from there.  At the bottom of this post, find links to all the participants.
 
We decided to share our favorite plant that lives in our houses or gardens.  My first thought was to share the tea rose that my husband gave me for Valentine's day one year.  I thought I'd killed it, but after putting it in our front flower bed, it came back to life and has been blooming wonderful salmon-colored flowers ever since.
 
Maybe it's that bed, because everything we plant in it grows like crazy.  That said, my other favorite has to be my aloe plants.  Darling Man had a friend who have him six little plants from his yard.  We weren't sure what to do with them and our front bed was looking pretty sparse, so they landed in there.  Did you know that aloes spread??  I don't even know how many plants are in there now but I can tell you that it's a lot.  We have a couple of grasses and four rose bushes and the rest is aloe.
 
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that we had every stage of bloom going at once in that bed, starting at the bud poking its head out of the leaves to the skinny bare bones at the end.
 






I have also learned that hummingbirds LOVE aloe blooms.  All through the summer, every time we had a bloom, hummingbirds would come hang out. 

People who come to my house ask what those plants are and when I tell them, they are always surprised, saying that they've never seen an aloe bloom.  That's why that bed might be magic - ours bloom almost constantly from spring to fall.  My black thumb has not defeated these plants and that's another reason I love them.

Here's a list of the participants!  Go visit their blogs and see what their favorite plans are!  And if you want to join in, tell me in the comments and I'll add a link to your blog.

The Dust Will Wait - PamelaJamela
Lisa's Chaos - Lisa
Little Debbies Little stitches - Debbie (this is coming up as an unsafe site - Debbie, please advise)
Ms Cellania - Christine
Another Chance Ranch - JulieBug
Dreaming What Ifs - Karmyn
Pensieve - Robin
Karisma's Place - Karisma
Myanderings - Sandy
Ice Cream Mama - Beth
Prytz Family - Jan
Jan and Jer

9 comments:

Jan n Jer said...

Yep..I am one of those people who have never seen an Aloe plant bloom. Very pretty...who knew!!!!
Thanks for hosting Sayre...I am ready to join in FM once again. Hope it will take off like it used to be. Please add my link!

Pamela said...

Nor have I. I had one growing in my living room for a few years. I even snitched it for sunburn remedy a few times.

I am sure it won't grow outside!

Beautiful. And hummingbirds ta-boot. Sigh.

Swampwitch said...

G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S ! My aloe plant is an indoor plant and it has also bloomed! Had no idea they did that until about three years ago. But, they (whoever they are), say all plants will bloom given the right conditions. The 'juice' from our plant has helped with burns many, many times. And oh, how I would love to have a magic garden.
Thanks for playing Mon Funday.

karmyn R said...

I didn't even know aloe bloomed....which shouldn't surprise me because "duh" it's a succulent and they bloom. I don't know if they'd grow outside in oregon.

Jan said...

I didn't know that hummingbirds love aloe plants. It's good to learn! I need to get some.

karisma said...

Very pretty. I also had no idea they bloomed. I was sitting here wondering if its a different plant to the Aloe Vera that we have here. Mine is always sprouting new plants but has never ever flowered. Interesting.

Jill said...

go ahead add me and I'll get something up ASAP. I didn't get internet until like half hour ago. rough day ;-)

lifeisnotbubblewrapped.com

ChrisB said...

Well I'm another one who has never seen an aloe in bloom. I love it's healing properties, as Swampy says brilliant for burns.

Faye said...

Like the way that the aloe is interesting in all stages of growth. Do you have it planted in mass--that would be impressive.