Aloe, Is It Me You're Looking For?

For the past say, two years, I've been meaning to do something about my aloe vera plant. It had become unruly, invasive, and had wrapped its tentacles around the blind pulls to ensure no one was fucking with its sunlight. But, it was also happy and I've got a live-and-let live policy so, until the entire plant began toppling over at random moments literally due to MOVING AS IT GREW, I didn't have the heart to cut it up. That tipping point led me to making some wild promises on Facebook to give away aloe vera plants galore as I transferred what I imagined to be innumerable pups into pots. Here's the reality.   

This thing was rootbound. And y'all, that's not a small pot. "Knock the soil off the roots," said google. "There is no soil left," said my father, who'd come to help with the transplanting/do the whole thing himself.

He needed a steak knife to start pulling it apart because that root ball was solid like a ball of elastics that had been glued together. And the fresh young pups I imagined breaking freely out of the soil as pictured on google were often so gnarled and dry that they weren't worth saving. I was trying to remember when I got this aloe plant and I think my Aunt Marilyn gave it to me like ten years ago, and it wasn't a baby then. 

We broke it apart as carefully as we could, tossing most of it in the green bin pile, unfortunately, but coming up with six viable plants! Two for me (in case one doesn't make it), four to give away. My dad put rocks in the bottom to help with drainage and placed each pup in its pot.

When you're planting, it's important to break up the soil to, as my 3-year-old says, "fluffen it up". It also makes for a pretty picture, so there's that. 

Each pup and my bigger two plants got the royal soil treatment, and my dad packed down and watered each.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I now have four plants to give away, which is better than no plants to give away but less than the ten to fifteen I pictured. I'll be running a casual little draw on my facebook and insta (for Saskatoon locals only) and am looking forward to giving these pretty pups new homes so they can grow and propagate! In the mean time, not gonna lie, I kinda miss my monster. It was a focal point and now all I see is my dish soap, drain plugs, and whatever else used to hide in its forest. 

xo