Stormy Weather

Harry

It's been raining here. Harry has been stormy, too. Sessions with a trainer have helped, but we're still working on rough spots, some of which have been very rough for all of us (except Natasha).

The late fall and winter Aloes are waking up. I got around to cleaning up an A. striata with rotted out roots--hopefully I can get it re-rooted. It had a lot of dried up leaf bases to get off.

There are new roots developing. They are yellow:

I left what appeared to be soil. The stem looks solid now with new roots exposed. Poppped onto a mound of gritty cactus mix, now it's up to the plant:

If that does not work, pulling off the lowest leaves and cutting back to expose fresh stem will be next. The plant is full-sized and looks healthy otherwise.

Flower stems are emerging on many Aloes now. The October rain we were fortunate to get gave them a good start.
A. vanbalenii:

A. 'Moonglow':

A. rubroviolacea. Seven multi-branched stems emerging so far. This one flowers slowly, over several months:

A. suprafoliata' stem emerged right after the October rain. It's showing color now:

A. 'Rooikappie' flowers off and on year round. This one under the shade of the Oak is on at the moment:

There are many roses in bloom yet, the flowers in in various states of ruin because of the rain, but that's okay--the rain is more important.

'Princess Alexandra Of Kent', not too ruined:

xThe biggest show at the moment is the Tagetes lemonii up on the west slope:

The Pentas will soon look miserable for the winter, but should come back as the weather warms next spring. This one worked a stem though its neighboring Agapanthus:

A reminder that struggling on can lead to victories, and even small victories are still victories.

2025 Hydrangea, new Hellebore foliage preparing for 2026. That's another of the healing things about gardens: a reminder the tired need to rest a while, a reminder they will wake up again.