Aloe madness...

I am back in Southern California (again) for the Holidays, although the picture above was taken exactly a year ago at the Huntington, right now almost every other house in Palos Verdes estates where I am staying has a massive Aloe in bloom (if not a Poinsettia tree, or Bougainvillea or some other brash explosion of bright color): with heavy rains on and off for weeks, the landscape is unbelievably lush and green, and when the sun comes out the L.A. basin is crystalline, with the dark blue ocean on the left and the San Gabriels and San Bernadinos snowy white to the East..... it really is a paradise (albeit a populous one)!

That's Kelly Griffin, photographing one of his amazing hybrids at Rancho Soledad, one of America's premier nurseries for succulents, palms, cycads, tree ferns: you name it when it comes to the exotic and wonderful. Kelly is renowned for his amazing aloe hybrids, many of which he sells at this site. (Click on site to connect to the URL).

Of course, what makes these new aloes so fantastic is not just for their showy winter bloom, but the amazing colors of the rosettes. I have a hunch I will be back down here again next year: winter in Southern California is pretty habit forming (the person who took all the pictures in this post, my girl friend Jan Fahs, has never NOT spent Christmas and New Years in Southern Cal.)
Oh oh...time to put on my clogs and stroll along the Strand to watch the surfers come in and sip mojitos while the Aloe colored sun sets...

[Truth in advertising: it's raining cats and dogs outside my window: hence my blog entry...]