#Gasteria sp./ Hybrid ?

[ruthbancroftgarden]

Gasteria sp.

We have many gasterias at the Ruth Bancroft Garden, both species and hybrids, and we value them for their succulent tongue-like leaves as well as for their dangling pot-bellied flowers. This particular one is notable for its glossy silvery-green leaves, and it has been available in horticulture for decades under the name Gasteria stanfieldii. However, this is not a recognized name, and we don't know where it originated in nature. Its erect stalks of pink flowers suggest that it might be a form of Gasteria bicolor, though with leaves more silvery than is usual for the species. All of the species of Gasteria are found in South Africa, with a couple of them also spilling over into neighboring countries. They are related to Aloe, in the family Asphodelaceae.

-Brian

[thebelmontrooster]

Potted Plants Update #1: The Front Porch Part 2

Potted Plants Update #1: The Front Porch Part 2

Hello everyone! I hope this post finds you well. Last week was definitely a hot one starting out at 97° F for a couple of days then just 91-93 for the remainder of the week. A few degrees doesn’t make much difference but it is very hard to want to go outside until after 6 PM. The heat and humidity seem so draining and not very motivational. A few times I walked to the shed and then went back to…

[botaniqueer]

It’s been over a year since the initial batch of seeds @frumpytaco gave me germinated! A lot of them haven’t grown as much as I would have liked since I think I accidentally overexposed them over the summer, so I’ve been lowering their light exposure hoping to reset them a little since they haven’t done much since. They’ve been very satisfying to work with as well.

Aloe comosa! These are the seedlings that actually adjusted well to the sun and have been growing since. I really like their purple pinstripe coloration. They’re tree-like Aloes as well and will eventually start developing trunks and have the largest adults out of this collection.

Gasteria sp. We never figured out the species of these ones. They’re also very pretty and the bottom one interests me in particular because it has thicker leaves and probably had a different donor parent from the others.

Gonialoe variegata. I’m excited for these ones to grow up because they look really pretty when they grow up. They’re commonly known as the Partridge Breast Aloe because of their patterning.

Aloe X spinossissima, or Spider Aloe. These ones were the first to start breaking their distichous leaf arrangement and begin spiraling. They were also the largest babies for a while until the A. comosas took off.

Another unknown species. These Aloes haven’t displayed any sort of distinct traits and are likely to be hybrids as well. They got sunburned in particular so I’m currently keeping them away from any supplemental lighting until they reset a little more.

Tylecodon wallichii! The odd one out of all of these in that they’re not Aloeae-clade plants. They’re not even monocots! Crassulaceae are always hard to get established so this guy has stayed small for the last year. It’s developed a small caudex though! These plants grow into weird caudiciform shrub-types that lose their leaves in the summer and come out of dormancy in the winter when things are less hot.