Aloe Hercules

[tacobender]

How much longer till it blooms? About 7 years or so old.  A bit over 3 meters tall.  All my other aloes have bloomed.

[Silas_Sancona]

8 minutes ago, tacobender said:

How much longer till it blooms? About 7 years or so old.  A bit over 3 meters tall.  All my other aloes have bloomed.

🤔Interesting ...it should be old enough to flower by now, i'd think..  Maybe this will be the year it starts.. 

Nice specimen regardless

How's the rest of the garden looking down there so far this " winter "?

[tacobender]

1 hour ago, Silas_Sancona said:

🤔Interesting ...it should be old enough to flower by now, i'd think..  Maybe this will be the year it starts.. 

Nice specimen regardless

How's the rest of the garden looking down there so far this " winter "?

[tacobender]

Everything is happy

[Silas_Sancona]

10 minutes ago, tacobender said:

Everything is happy

  ..VERY happy   ..Nice..

[TropicsEnjoyer]

I love the dark red flowers

[tinman10101]

i find aloe hercules flowers to be not very spectacular and rather drab compared to other tree aloes such as ferox and marlothii

[Silas_Sancona]

On 1/9/2025 at 3:02 PM, tacobender said:

Everything is happy

On a side note, cuz i forgot to ask, lol ...how long have the Pachys (  -photo bombing the Aloes on the right- )  been in the ground. No issues w/ the heat during the summer? 

..You'll have to post some shots of them ..and your Adeniums- when they start flowering in a few months..

[Tracy]

On 1/9/2025 at 12:34 PM, tacobender said:

How much longer till it blooms? About 7 years or so old.  A bit over 3 meters tall.  All my other aloes have bloomed.

I can only reference experience on my one Aloe Hercules regarding time to bloom.  I am guessing it was about 8 to 10 years in ground from a 1 gallon.  The base was close to double the size of yours before I saw the first bloom and they aren't large.  They can tend to get tucked away in the foliage which is quite high.  Mine is blooming now, so I will try to get photos of the blooms to share in the coming days.

[Tracy]

I'm following up on the Aloidendron "Hercules" hybrid and blooming.  I took photos of blooms today, and as you can see they aren't as large and showy as some Aloes.  Mine is now about 14 1/2 years in the ground, so it first bloomed about 4-6 years ago.  You probably will see more heads and a larger trunk before you can expect to see your first blooms.  They do get immense as you can see.  I water the adjacent plants via drip, but stopped watering this several years ago to try to get it to slow down.  I do worry a bit about its proximity to my front wall.  Size Large (US size 10)Men's sandal for perspective on the trunk girth.

[tacobender]

On 1/11/2025 at 10:08 PM, Silas_Sancona said:

On a side note, cuz i forgot to ask, lol ...how long have the Pachys (  -photo bombing the Aloes on the right- )  been in the ground. No issues w/ the heat during the summer? 

..You'll have to post some shots of them ..and your Adeniums- when they start flowering in a few months..

Once a week water for succulents. No water January to March. The only thing they dislike is direct ocean frontage with salty winds. The pacheys seed every other year, thousands of seeds. The adeniums seeds are year round with seedlings all over the yard.

[Josh76]

Beautiful specimen, Tracy. What are people's experiences with these setting seed? Does Hercules produce viable seed or are they sterile? Can they be back-crossed with either parent or with other aloes? And if they do produce viable seed, what are the next generation plants like?

[Silas_Sancona]

On 1/13/2025 at 9:49 AM, tacobender said:

Once a week water for succulents. No water January to March. The only thing they dislike is direct ocean frontage with salty winds. The pacheys seed every other year, thousands of seeds. The adeniums seeds are year round with seedlings all over the yard.

Lucky you!, " Adenium  < ..or Pachys >  popping up around the yard would be a nice problem to have, ha ha..

Your watering schedule mirrors how i water the Adeniums .and pretty much everything else " arid ", inc. the Bursera ( Wouldn't doubt you've probably heard folks refer to that Genus of trees as " Copal " down there )

Only difference between schedules might be i cut off water to all that stuff in November. 

Might be why i'm not seeing -any- issues on the Desert Rose after a few mornings at / below 32 since Sat., inc. this mornings' 28.8F.

Risky ofcourse, but as dry as it has been,  decided to leave them outside this year just to see what might happen.

You try either of the " Fat Trunk " Delonix sps? ( D. decaryi, or D.  pumila  )

[Tracy]

On 1/14/2025 at 7:31 AM, Josh76 said:

Beautiful specimen, Tracy. What are people's experiences with these setting seed? Does Hercules produce viable seed or are they sterile? Can they be back-crossed with either parent or with other aloes? And if they do produce viable seed, what are the next generation plants like?

I don't know about seed viability.   I haven't sprouted seedlings naturally, so it must not be a risk of going wild here.  I also don't know about further crossing it but it would take a big ladder to hand pollinate.