They are beautiful. There is a website I use to identify stuff. It is www.deserttropicals.com. I started looking through but am not sure if I found yours or not. I had to respond and get to my two year old =0) It is hard to say with the flower bud not completely open. I looked at Aloe lateritia, aloe zebrina (red flower), and Aloe greatheadii var. davyana. I think the last looks a lot like it. I am not sure, but I don't know if the gels from these has the same medicinal uses as aloe vera. Care would probably be the same.

After looking over the site you mentioned, the closest type seemed to be the branddraaiensis. Soap Aloe/Zebra Aloe, Prinslooi, Turkanensis, Aloe Zebrina are some of the aloes that have similiar features to the one I have. My aloe has red-orange colored flowers, it splits three ways at the base of the stem, the leaves are a medium green with light slightly oval spots, spikes (which turn from green to brown in direct sunlight, the leaves will also turn a purplish-brown color when over exposed in the light, the center base of the plant never lingers above ground like Soap Aloe does slightly.. the rest you can figure out from the pictures I posted.

Unfortunately www.deserttropicals.com doesn't include images with every aloe and the pictures are not very detailed in most cases(ie. baby plants which don't show adult features) Thank you very much for the feedback and link, hope that my main 2 questions will be answered soon :).

Brian

I usually wait until there are three or four visible leaves. Use a sharp clean knife or even a hand trowel and push it between the pup and mom. Make sure to go down and try to get a bit of the roots with it. Mine are in pots so I usually take them out and get the soil off so I can see what I'm doing. Since you're going to replant them in a raised area or pots, you might go ahead and dig them up first so you can see exactly what you are cutting. THe ones that aren't formed enough, just leave on mother and repot. They look really awesome. You're going to have tons of them. After you separate and repot, hold off watering for about a week. The roots can't take in water after they have been damaged and cut which will inevitibly happen with transplant/separation.

As normal I put up a few new pictures of the aloe I have(on myspace profile) for those that don't have a myspace account the 3 links below show:

1. one of the many pups in a close-up view
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2. a close up view of the white spots on the mother plant taken over the center
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3. a side view of the mother plant to show the size, height, and how the center seems to be in one general area and how the leaves stay straight or curve upward from the center, rather than make a stacked appearance.
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I think you have pretty much answered my questions tanyag thanks for the information, I'll keep pictures posted on myspace until I make a web gallery on my homesite. The flowers should come around soon hopefully, I saw my friend's aloe bloom already almost 2 weeks ago, but it's much smaller in size.