Sorry not sorry, Hercules

My previous post was all about Aloidendron ‘Hercules’. I explained where it came from and why it’s become such a popular landscaping plant. I also included photos of ‘Hercules’ in cultivation (as a man-made hybrid, it doesn’t exist in nature).

All that was the backstory for today’s post, which is about our ‘Hercules’. I bought it in March 2014 as an anchor plant for the newly completed sidewalk bed. This is what it looked like when I brought it home from the nursery:

March 2014, in 15-gallon pot

It was the first plant to move into the sidewalk bed:

Planted in the sidewalk bed, March 2014

In the years that followed, ‘Hercules’ grew at a steady pace even though it received very little water directly. (Of course its roots could have traveled far and wide, grabbing water from other plants that were irrigated.)

Which brings us to December 2023. Here is our ‘Hercules’ from behind, as seen from the backyard...

...and from the front:

I didn’t measure the height of our ‘Hercules’, but considering that the fence has a height of 6 ft. and the mounded bed is about 1 ft. above the sidewalk, I estimate ‘Hercules’ to be about 11 ft. tall.

As I mentioned in my previous post, there are at least two distinct forms of ‘Hercules’: The Bill Baker form is chunky and branches fairly low, often below 8 ft. The tissue-culture form out of Rancho Tissue is skinny and doesn’t branch until it reaches 10-12 ft. in height; because it’s propagated en masse through tissue culture, it’s become the most frequently seen form.

Our ‘Hercules’ is gangly and spindly, which leads me to believe it’s the tissue-culture form (I bought it at Village Nurseries, now Everde). Others might disagree, but to my eyes, it looks awkward. I wanted a well-proportioned and stately tree aloe, and this is not it. Even the base of the trunk is lacking that elegant flare you see in other ‘Hercules’:

What I wanted is this – well, a more modest version of it anyway:

A. ‘Hercules’ at Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria, CA; this plant was donated by Bill Baker

By now, I’m sure you know where all of this is going. Yes, I finally acted on my long-harbored discontent (9 years and counting!) and did this:

Our garden is so small that every plant has to pull its weight. Whenever I was looking at our ‘Hercules’, I was reminded of what it wasn’t. That’s why it had to go.

It took only 30 seconds for my reciprocating saw to cut through the trunk. Aided by a good dose of luck, I managed to get the top section to fall right between the two plants in front, without damaging either. I’d expected the cut-off part to be heavy, and it was. Here it is on the curbside yard waste pile:

Remains of our ‘Hercules’ on top of the yard waste pile

To my huge surprise, I saw that there actually were two heads. In other words, our ‘Hercules’ had started to branch, which would have become visible soon. I won’t lie, seeing the two heads brought on an acute pang of remorse. Maybe I had acted rashly; maybe I should have simply been more patient. But the deed had been done, and there was no undoing it.

Two heads

In spite of my initial concerns – and visions of having to ask a friend to pull what was left with his pickup truck – removing the remaining trunk section was easy. Using my beloved Root Slayer, I made a series of overlapping vertical cuts around the trunk. The Root Slayer has sharp rip-saw teeth that literally slice through everything they encounter. After I’d completed the circle, I was able to wiggle the trunk back and forth until it was free. Then it was simply a matter of dragging it over to the yard waste pile.

I still can’t believe how quickly I was able to dig out the bottom part of the trunk

All that was left behind in the bed was a shallow crater:

Of course I didn’t go to all this trouble without a replacement for ‘Hercules’ waiting in the wings. Here it is:

26" tall, 29" wide as of December 25, 2023

It's a cross between Aloidendron ‘Hercules’ and Aloidendron ramosissimum, which is closely related to Aloidendron dichotomum, one of the parents of ‘Hercules’. I picked up this plant at Solana Succulents, Jeff Moore’s nursery in northern San Diego County, on my trip in February 2023. Jeff says it originally came from Steven Duey of Gabilan Mountain Succulents in Fallbrook, CA. Brent Wigand has several plants from the same seedling batch in his garden in Southern California:

A. ‘Hercules’ × A. ramosissimum in Brent Wigand’s garden; these plants are watered once a month in the summer

Brent says there’s quite a bit of variability in these plants; some branch quite low (like the one in the photo above), and another one started to flower (orange) when it was only 3 ft. tall, producing copious amounts of seed (rare in A. ramosissimum).

Here is our A. ‘Hercules’ × A. ramosissimum cross in the ground, in the same spot previously occupied by our runty ‘Hercules’:

A. ‘Hercules’ × A. ramosissimum

Based on what it already looks like now, I have no doubt that this plant will give me what I’d been wanting all these years.

A. ‘Hercules’ × A. ramosissimum

The remains of our old ‘Hercules’ were hauled away by the yard waste collection truck. I did save one of the two heads and will try to root it:

Why, you might ask? Because I still feel some compunction about cutting down what admittedly was a perfectly healthy plant. At least this way I can give it a chance to live on. I’ll put the cutting up for adoption once it has roots; I’m sure there’s a good home for it out there somewhere.

© Gerhard Bock, 2024. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.