Herself’s Houston Garden

Rust is a group of fungi that attack many plants. Each fungi attacks a specific plant. This occurs from too little sun and too much water.

The best fix is to give the plant more sun and drier air. That’s not so easy outside and not during the occasional cold, wet spells we get in Houston.

The next option is to use a fungicide. You can find them at any place that sells plant supplies.

As long as the wet, cold spell does not last too long, the fungus should not hurt the plant, just discolor it.

I hadn’t yet put together a southwest themed pocket garden so that was this week’s project. The strip of dirt along the driveway gets full sun all afternoon and isn’t too wet. And every single other plant I have put there has committed suicide.

I moved the aloe from out back and added in some south-west plants, one of which is the Tiger Toothed Aloe.

Aloe is one of those plants that has more varieties than you can keep track of. Tiger tooth Minibelle is not a dwarf variety but not a full sized aloe either. It will reach a spread of about 8″ across making a good choice for tight areas. It should reach a height of about 18″ tall.

Like all aloes it wants lots of sun and well drained soil and isn’t particular about the soil quality.

This variety is supposed to be fast growing with pink/mauve flowers in the summer.

I’m really pushing the zones a bit with this plant it prefers zones 9 & 10 and here in The Woodlands we’re about 8b/9a. With a bit of luck and a bit of global warming all will be well. The outer leaves died back after a hard freeze, the inner protected leaves were fine.

This plant grows and expands by pup rapidly. Give it lots of room, it’ll run over anything in its way.

Aloes do very well in Houston. I had a slight bought of rust they have been trouble free plants.

This is my first attempt at growing aloe outdoors. Someone brought some cuttings off a plant she was trimming to a meeting I was attending the other evening.

Aloes want full sun. They are succulents and store water so they need very little water and will rot if planted in a damp area.

Aloes thrive in the Houston summers, mine barely wintered over in the winter of ’09-’10. Most of the outer leaves died off and only the inner protected ones survived all the frosts we had.

Once established and happy they will bloom, flowers come up on tall spikes and are impressive. The aloe sends up new shoots and rapidly forms clusters of plants.

Blooming takes place in winter and it makes a great winter food for hummingbirds and bees.

Aloe doesn’t mind being moved about if you want o try a new location. Grows rapidly, sends off pups from base which you can leave or replant elsewhere.

Aloe starting to bloom Nov 14th 2008