Windowsill Aloes

If you've been reading my posts for a while and really paying attention to details, you may know that my house has very limited south-facing window space for plants. In fact I have exactly two windows that face south, one that is about 8" (20cm) wide with no sill, and the window in front of the kitchen sink.

Still though, I manage to keep a few plants here throughout the year, adding a couple more during the winter months. Right now the two plants are both Aloes.

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Until a couple of months ago it was just a single Aloe, this small unidentified one that I planted in a glass. Then one day my wife (who is a baker and regularly comes home with burns) asked if I was growing Aloe vera.

Which I immediately used as an excuse to purchase my first Aloe vera -- I literally went to the store that  evening.

I've never grown this useful plant before, mainly because I don't really like the way a single specimen looks: sort of two-dimensional with the leaves growing opposite each other on the stem. So I made sure I chose a small plant that was producing as many pups as I could:

A couple of months later, the plant has really filled out -- there must be 7 or 8 offsets jammed into the small container!

Now that I've been growing this for a while, I have to admit it was a mistake to shun it for so many years. It's a pretty, carefree plant that I don't mind looking at every time I use the sink.

Let's look at the glass-planted Aloe now...

This guy has also produced offsets which are jammed against the glass:

Although I normally like large, fast-growing plants, this small, slow-growing one is perfect for the limited space I have here.

It's beautiful too, when you take a close enough look.

So those are the windowsill Aloes. What do you have growing in your kitchen window?


I may actually have a third Aloe in my terrarium, but that's in the basement, not something I look at every day, and is best left for another post.

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