There are only 30 more
shopping days until Spring!
During the first week –
likely the first day – of Spring, I plan to do a little cactus and aloe
repotting and surgeries! There will be a bunch of cacti and aloe babies
available come Spring! My cactuses are older cuttings from cacti my mom grew
that were cuttings from her mother’s cactuses and she even recalls this same
type of cactus in pots at her grandmother’s
house (my GREAT grandmother – who would have been 126 years old on February 9!)
It thrills me that there is that kind of legacy connected to these plants, isn’t
that amazing?!
My three cacti are all approximately 3 to 4 feet tall and all
need some of their extra arms removed for stability – those are the babies!
Those cure for 7 days then you plant the arms and voila! Baby cacti. It is a
cactus miracle. In addition, I want to get the primary cactuses into larger
more permanent pots. In NC and GA these favored plants go outside in the spring
and summer and are moved indoors before the first frost.
Without going to count
them all, I think I have 20 pots of aloe vera. (Is that excessive?) I love them. (Is it wrong to love a plant?) They, like the cactuses to which they are related, are like members of my
family! Most of my aloes are descendants of my mom’s original aloe collection
plus I inherited most of her aloe plants (and super cool pots) when she moved.
When we moved from NC to GA, I was saddened to realize we
left a slew of plants and pots on the back porch. Some of which I was able to
adopt out by cajoling my friends go by the old house and “steal” the forgotten
plants from the porch.
All the aloes need
attention this spring. The big three plants that I lovingly refer to as the
mama, grandmamma, and big mama plants
need to have the older longer stem severed and their younger inner portion of
the plant repotted. Most of the aloe pots have several pup plants that grew
from the root buds under the soil. These can be gently removed and potted by
themselves for a brand new little aloe plant!
We use aloe straight from the leaf to heal burns, scrapes, minor boo boos. Fillet open a leaf and lay the gel side onto your face under your eyes and you can almost instantly see and feel it tighten up the bags and other skin on your face. It gives you a younger fresher glow! I also peel the leaf (including the yellow layer inside the skin of the leaf – it has a stinky bitter odor and taste and is reported to have laxative qualities. I stay away from that.) Anyway pare the green leaf off the clear gel and run it through the blender to liquefy the aloe gel. We use it in our homemade body wash and soaps for added natural moisturizing and skin healing properties. Read here for more information on aloe vera.Check out other articles on this blog on aloe:
Are you living your best life? This is YOUR life and the only person in charge of it is YOU. The only person who can make changes to your life is YOU. Take charge of your life today!
Cheers,
Ramsey
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