Annah and I received three beautiful cuttings last Wednesday from one of our good friends. This friend, Valerie, left on Saturday to spend six months in Ecuador to study and explore South America. She decided to give us these cuttings as a gift for our engagement. Each individual cutting was presented to us in small jelly jars with glass pebbles and look very nice.
The first cutting is a Spider Plant (Chlorophytum comosum) and should easily root in the water in which it has been placed. All of my previous spider plant cuttings that I have rooted have been successful, so I anticipate this cutting to survive without a problem. I hope I can keep the variegated white lines on this plant since I have been unable to do that with my own Chlorophytum comosum 'Hawaiian' which has not received sufficient light to maintain it's variegation.
The second cutting is a Jade (Crassula ovata) which should easily root in the water. I have had success with propagating my own Jade plants so this cutting should not be a problem.
The third cutting is from her Aloe vera plant. From my research I have now found that rooting Aloe vera in water will likely lead to rotting. I will likely be moving this cutting into a small pot of soil to see if it will root. Have any of you had success with Aloe vera propagation? Please leave a comment if you have.
Annah and I are optimistic that we can keep these cuttings alive so that we can enjoy our beautiful and healthy additions to our houseplant collection!
Edit: The Aloe vera cutting was moved from the jar to a small pot filled with soil on the evening of 01/13/2009. There did not appear to be any signs of rot following it's removal from the water-filled jar.
Those are so pretty in the jars, the Aloe will rot if you leave it in water, treat it like a cactus. Put it in some damp soil and leave it alone, at least that's what I do. Good luck!!
Aloes are succulent plants that get along just fine on very little water during the growing season and very, very little water during the winter months. They like a soil with fairly high drainage and a shallow tray will work fine as a planter...even when they get big. As for reproducing, give it about a year or so to set into its surroundings, then it's likely to shoot up in size and begin producing offsets, (baby plants). Aloe barbadensis is especially good at reproducing.