Some of my succulent plants from my collection. The small Aloe Vera variety with white freckles were taken from a friend’s garden. They don’t seem to get any bigger but do have many little “pups” (the baby plants). I repotted them this weekend, but ran out of potting soil first. I am bringing one indoor and seeing if it will grow with minimal sunshine.

Aloe Vera plants are great since they don’t require much water (especially in the winter).  And they are consider to be evergreen perennial succulents.  But I’m not sure how well they will grow in other parts of the U.S. with longer winter.  But here in northern California it is growing fine.

Another thing that’s great about Aloe Vera is the gel inside can be used to soothe sunburns and also to help heal cuts.  I also like using the gel in my handmade soap.  But the variety I use is not pictured here.  I get the big ones from my mother’s garden.  They are heavy and plump with gel in the summer months.

I like the top view of this Aloe Vera plant.  It’s suppose to have little orange flowers too, but I have yet to see them.  I’ve had this plant for maybe 3 years now.  I should have written down the name of it, but I do know it’s part of the Aloe Vera family.

There are about 300 varieties of the Aloe Vera, but yet only 4 of them will contain the substantial healing stuff.  I actually bought this from the grocery store house plant section.  It was pretty small and had three of them in a small pot.  I gave 1 to my mother and another to a friend.  So far mine has gotten really big.  But no little pups coming from this Aloe Vera yet.

I don’t know the name of this succulent either.  But it’s really pretty, I think it may be part of the Jade plant family.  It has these huge shiny green and plump leaves.  Little baby branches grow from the main stem.  I have had this for almost 1 year now.