12 YEARS AGO I planted a branch of Aloe barber – the tree aloe from University of Riverside’s Botanic Garden at my parent’s house. It was happy. Now it’s a gigantic magnificent flowering specimen. The San Gabriel River bed is a white granite sandy loam, and I think the tree tapped into the neighbors overwatered and over fertilized lawn. It’s difficult to see how big this tree really is in the photo.

I’ve given away lots of branches. The branches are very heavy, btw.