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Thursday, May 7, 2009

Aloe Vera Plant

If plants want to survive in my house they have to be as hardy as a cactus! Without being outside where God can take care of my plants for me, they really don't stand much of a chance.

But one plant I can keep is an Aloe Vera. I would have said you can't kill one, but I did last year by leaving it in the car for a few days in freezing temperatures.

I have a few in a pot at the kitchen window so when I burn myself, I can go pull a leaf and squeeze its juice on my wound. When this happens, I am reminded to water the thing. Maybe the only reason why it survives is that fact that I am a clutz and I need it every so often.

It also has tons of other uses: laxative, sunburns, insect bites, etc.

See TipNut (great website by the way) for how to use an aloe vera plant and all the uses it is good for. And how to take care of it, but since I am actually capable of keeping one around, they aren't too picky.

6 comments:

Stephanie said...

My grandma always had an aloe vera plant. It was wonderful when we were out playing all day and would get huge sunburns, and she would give us fresh aloe to rub on.

Together We Save said...

I love the aloe vera plant. It is the only one I have not killed.

Aloe-Gelly said...

Aloe is not a cactus, its a lily.
I own about 12 aloe plants in my home, but here in Germany, the sun isnt so bright, that the aloe can built much of the essentials with the sunlight.
So I must use additional creams, lotions and aloe vera gels for my healthy and my skin.

We use aloevera for more than 9 years now ourselves and also in the neigborhood.
But here in Germany it is not allowed to speak about the healthy function of the plant.

Sorry for my bad english, I hope you could understand what I mean

Melissa Jagears said...

Aloe-Gelly,

I knew aloes aren't cactus, but I see that it sure looks like that is what I meant, so I fixed it. Thanks for pointing that out. Aloes are Succulents.

Sewing-Chick said...

I killed my aloe plant! I think I blogged about it in my "I Hate Gardening" post.

Unknown said...

My mum and I just came back from a holiday in Lanzarote and bought an aloe plant each back with us. I can't wait for it to get big enough to remove leaves. I have been using aloe products for a while now, but having my own plant is far more exciting - did you know you can eat/drink them too?
They don't taste very nice so you have to either chill the gel right down, or better still freeze the gel in chunks and swallow it like a pill - really good for your digestive system, skin, asthma, etc. Best treatment for everything!
Not sure about how to keep them - I've bought a small plastic covered shelf (like a greenhouse) for the garden - hopefully that'll be dry and hot enough for it.