Late last summer, we got a lot of rain over an extended period of time. One of my beautiful Aloe barberae's really took a beating. It looked like it might be rotting.
This weekend, while looking out the back window, I saw it lying down and my first thought was, oh no, the raccoons again.
Upon closer inspection, I saw a lot of raccoon digging in the lawn around it and I do suspect they had something to do with it, but, the poor aloe's main stem was completely rotten. It is bizarre, because my other Aloe barberae in my rock garden is doing extremely well. The only difference is that its planted on a hill of sand - so it must be the drainage that made all the difference.
Now I'm stuck with what to plant in its place. I have some orange fleshed guava seedlings growing that I think might fit in very well. I am limbing it up and keeping the main stem clear so that it will be trained as a tree and not a shrub and this means the magnificent bark will be visible - but these seedlings are still very small, so maybe for now, I'll plant a fast growing shrubs or transplant one of my seed-grown giant crinum lilies there.
My sympathy on your plant loss. We had an oak in the yard topple over last week from all the rain, it had virtually no root system, given its size. That is happening a lot here in Central Florida, the last few years have been hard on the oaks, especially laurel oaks.
ReplyDeleteWow, hope the tree didn't cause any damage, and even sadder still to see a giant fall and leave an empty spot that will take decades to fill in.
ReplyDeleteMaybe now's the time to plant some edible trees in its place ? How about some loquat's - The loquat is adapted to a subtropical to mild-temperate climate. Well-established trees can tolerate a drop in temperature to 12º F (-11.11º C). http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/loquat.html
Loquats do very well here, and they seed themselves well too. I am always ready for new edible ideas.
ReplyDelete