Random plant event: Aloe x humilis

These pictures are from the ex-job, in early January. They've never exactly had an ID for the plants, but they were sold as "hedgehog" Aloes, and there's a plant I've seen elsewhere, sold as A. x humilis 'Hedgehog,' which I'm guessing is the same plant even though that specimen was larger. So that's what I'm calling them for purposes of the post, though the name 'Blue Elf' has also been proposed as an ID. In any case, I bought one of them from the ex-job a couple years ago, and it's been a good houseplant. No pests, propagated a few times, no abrupt declines -- if it can make it through another eleven months without any major problems, it'll qualify for All-Star status.

Aloe x humilis 'Hedgehog,' according to the tag.
I, of course, have never gotten flowers on my plants indoors. Which is a shame -- even a bit after their prime, as in these pictures, the flowers are still pretty. But then, most of my Aloes don't bloom; the only one that ever did so with any consistency was A. 'Doran Black,' and the parent plant of that one disintegrated on me about a month or two ago. I've restarted what few offsets I could salvage, but it'll be a long time before it's back to blooming size.


I've gotten flowers on A. 'Grassy Lassie' once indoors, too, though they didn't photograph well and were gone by the time I figured out that they hadn't photographed well. Not that the flowers are really the point, for any of my Aloes and Aloe hybrids. They're just nice.