Tree Aloe (Aloe arborescens)

Tree Aloe
Aloe arborescens

The Aloes were blooming at the New York Botanical Garden the other day when I visited the Holiday Train Show. This one in particular had a huge number of blooms. I shot this picture with my Sigma 28-200mm Macro lens. Karen has my D70s kit lens (18-70mm) on her D80. The Aloe is an interesting plant with its medicinal properties well documented. Scientists aren’t sure why it works and it is the focus of much ongoing research. Aloe arborescens grows to 6 to 8 feet and is one of about 400 Aloe species. The flowers are wonderful and their reddish orange color is an attraction for Hummingbirds.

On the way home from the garden I got off the Saw Mill River Parkway because of an accident and all the resulting traffic. I ended up driving up Route 9 through Sleepy Hollow. Having just seen the movie the night before I decided to stop and have a look around. I will have to go back during the summer as it is a quaint town with a lot of history. I stopped at the Philipsburg Manor, which is a group of buildings and a recreation of early life in the Hudson Valley. I noticed it is one of several ‘Historic Hudson Valley’ attractions in the area. Although daylight was fading I was able to get a couple of pictures.

I am glad the Holidays are over! I am looking forward to 2007 in the garden. I hope to grow and photograph a lot of flowers and plants. The past year was a good one for me as I was able to learn so much more about plants in general, much of it thanks to this blog. I haven’t been posting much because of the lack of botanical images. I have plenty of stuff in the archives but generally this space was reserved for new pictures and that has been a wonderful thing about doing this, I am out shooting all the time. If this weather continues the way it has been I should be able to get some plant shots outdoors soon. I was in the Tribeca neighborhood in Manhattan on Saturday and among the things I saw was a Cherry tree in full bloom! There were numerous things starting to bloom at the NYBG. It is a little freaky but I am interested to see where these plants end up in spring.


This plant seems to have numerous Synonyms (here are a few of the them: Candelabra aloe, Candelabra plant, Octopus plant, Torch plant, Woody aloe, Aloe perfoliata var. arborescens, Aloe milleri

Here are a few from Sleepy Hollow, NY







Ugh! Blogger.com washed out my colors again! The grass was a very bright shade of green.