The Christmas Carol is gorgeous; just added another item to my wish list!

Thanks :) It's been so happy since I put it into gritty mix.

Very beautiful!

omg...that christmas carol!! soooo pretty!!! adding that to the list of wants!

Wow, Kwie, your aloe is a beauty ! <3 edit - was just eyeballing it again and noticed the pale aloe in the background - what is that? I've been coveting more aloes, and I want to add it to my list!

I actually purchased mine as "Aloe Asst."... So technically I'm guessing at the ID lol. The Altman website shows a few hybrids, none of which really compare, so maybe mine's an oddball hybrid? Christmas Carol seemed good based on Internet photos. Christmas Sleigh also looks similar ...

And the mystery baby was a rooted leaf found in another plant I bought when repotting. I was SO thrilled when it began growing and turned out cresteD. Perhaps some kind of pachyveria ... ?

here it is mid-July

July 29

And August 17

I am just in love with the colours.

I'm not certain mine is Christmas Carol, either. I got it from another member who wasn't positive. I've also been over photos of many Kelly Griffin hybrids, and some are really similar- all pretty though.

The white aloe is a bit of a mystery. I think it might be 'Quicksilver' or 'Silver Fox.'

I am also looking for more Aloes. They are weirdly tolerant of the relatively poor sun they get here, and they grow great in grit. They're my easiest plants, and they bloom so reliably.

I love your little crested mystery plant. What a stroke of luck! If I had to guess, solely by leaf shape, I'd guess Sedeveria, but I'm no expert. Coincidentally, I have a crested leaf pup from my E. runyonii. It's also tiny. Succulents are so much fun.

They are so much fun! This aloe is only my third plant to have home-grown blooms :) I have two cactus (cactuses? cacti? Lol) that have rebloomed, but none of my others have indoors, until now.

I'm lucky, though. We get a lot of sun here all year, and I have lots of south and west facing windows. (I lived in Vancouver for 10 years, and the lack of sunlight is a drag. Our first winter there we went *42* straight days without seeing the sun, it was horrible!)

I nearly bought aloe blizzard and Minnie belle recently but they were overpriced for a 5" pot and I'm kind of on a "diet" lol after having spent so much in the last 3 months already on plants and potting materials. I really want the pink blush, too .... But I've told myself I cannot buy anything until spring, or I find a gasteria... whichever comes first HA. Wish me luck.

Kd

The 'sedum flowers' look like a hardy sedum that would like to overwinter outdoors (obviously, I can see only so much of them in your photo).

Yes they are, sedum uhhhh crud... Dragons Blood. Spurium! I found them on the floor at Home Depot :-P

i have a "patio basket" I got for $5 that has several varieties including spurium and I'm going to add them to my rock garden, hopefull next year they will spread like crazy :) I also want to get a bunch of the bigger sedum/stonecrops like yours that are blooming, Rina. Before we developed my lot and built the new house I had TONS but I ripped everything out and gifted all my good perennials ... But I can't remember who got the sedums to go and recover some cuttings!

Visit them all, you may get lots of cuttings of your favoured plants and maybe some new ones they bought...I would imagine you are having some perennials in your garden too, not only succulents?

Oh, yeah. My yard is 99% perennial/native. If it can't hack -30 winters and drought conditions in the summer, it can't live here :-P. I have day lilies, irises, primroses, huechera, spiraea, barberry, nanking cherry, valentine cherry, wild roses, Virginia creeper, hops, juniper, Cotoneaster, blanket flowers, columbine, tons and tons of yellow sorrel, daisies and asters etc. I hardly lift a finger and my yard looks great. My exceptions are petunia baskets - I just love petunias - sunflowers and marigolds. My greatest loss was my giant strawberry patch - I watched them all die on a neighbours porch because they never got planted :(

Photo below from a couple years ago - I have rocks everrrywhere. I am expanding the left side to add sedums and some semps, and all the wolf willow has to be eradicated. It's over 7' tall now and coming up 20 feet away in neighbours yards :( the Virginia creeper is all over the arbour now too.

This area here is being cleared of most of the river rock and will be my C&S bed:

Wait a minute... Your succulents can survive to -30C? I misunderstood something, right? You must take your succulents in during the winter.

I currently live in that depressing, sun-free climate you had in Vancouver. It is challenging to grow succulents in.

No, no, no ... Not all succulents. The sedums and sempervivums do survive winter, but the rest not so much ;)

I'm new to the tender succulents, and I am practically allergic to putting my indoor plants outside. eeeek! Although I did actually put a jade outside this year. I think it got too much rain, it's kinda meh. My outdoor garden is almost all hardy perennial plants. I am putting in a major C&S bed next year, and I'm even going to try opuntia!

KD - not all sedums, just the hardy ones :) (I am sure that's what you meant). Luckily, many are hardy to z2...

May I ask how you going about making the succulent bed?

Thank you, Rina, yes. I meant the *hardy* sedums :)

I have less than 2 feet of clay/silt soil over solid bedrock, so I'm going to excavate the bed, mix the soil with perlite and grit and add it back in. I want to build it up in some kind of tiers (my daughter suggested an ascending spiral - I really like that idea!) with select river rocks and add the soil back in. Probably top-dressed in my existing gold gravel, though I am toying with the idea of using the pink and purple toned river rocks (of which I have many LOL) and a purple gravel mix. Lots of semps (I'll probably have to order the more unusual ones) and sedums to trail in amongst the edging rocks.

Not sure where the opuntia fit in, yet...I have a rusty old tricycle, kerosene lamp, farm fence etc. So I may do a seperate cactus bed elsewhere with an old Drumheller farm vibe :)