Thanks for replying Christine! Yes, I had that baby Aloe growing green (very green! compared to mother plant --I'm still looking to see if I took a photo that ever included it) in plain water plastic cup! It had a developed root system and I was following instructions (general) for converting all my water only plants back to soil as unfortunately, we have West Nile carrying mosquitos that love to take over indoor pots of water, so only solution is to convert everything that is doing great in water to either full hydroponics (missing the pots I have lots of the Deco system clay pellets)---or back to soil. Back to soil was easy choice as I already had the original pot the plant was already growing two years in it. Sad story---- it got knocked over in its soil pot a year ago---- so I put it in water But now with new soil in the same exact pot that it came out of with a new water developed root system back in January 2014 I repotted it and had it in good sunny location (exactly where it thrived for two years prior). So its a mystery to me what I could have done wrong....(right, it originally fell over all by itself, who knows what reason was...I did not touch it, found it on floor one sad day).... There is more green on the tall stalk, but one of the side ones withered away now.... so strange, I'm still being hopeful as long as its green somewhere, right? What did I do wrong so I don't repeat the same error! Thanks again for replying!

@abelrose Did you try talking to them first before reporting them? I hope so. I have a jerk real estate investor who thought he'd flip the house next to quickly. He pulled up all of my former neighbors perennials including cute little very ell mainted evergreens, roses, spire, iris, lilacs, etc. Left completely empty beds with just soil. House way overpriced so it hasn't sold for months. Now the beds have every noxious weed I've seen from purslane to plantain to creeping charlei, crab grass, burdock, dandelion, deadly nightshade, and more. Idiot. My yard has perennials, mature trees, groundcover, grass, and a bit of mulch. Very few weeds have any place to pop up. I can pull them (about 3-5) once a week. This developer left a nastygram on my door right when all the beds in his property were denuded. He said my backyard was "a jungle". Backfired. I have a friend in code enforcement who said my yard was a great example of a fuuly planted, low maintenance yard. The only weed I have is milkweed for monarch butterflies. The developer thought having so many plants was "jungle-y". Compared to his dirt flats and burnt out grass I guess.

i'm happy that you were able to free the snake neohippie, and i'm very glad to have the info- thanks! and just fyi (everyone); the very fine black bird netting will also trap snakes- they can't back out of it. i discovered a beautiful one hanging dead in my berry patch. -and it traps birds too, so check out the piles of netting you have in sheds and garages and put it in plastic bags. i found this out the sad way one summer long ago and have never used it since. min

I'd recommend pulling the aloe out of the pot and working the root ball a little first to loosen the roots. Then grab a base of one of the plants (I like to start with the larger ones on the outside) and gently work it away from the root ball. Set the pulled piece aside and repeat! There will be some snapping of roots. Usually I will do it quickly, and invariably end up with a few rootless stragglers that I throw out. I would also leave the divided plants in a dry, shady location for ~24 hours (unplanted) so any wounds can callous over. You can move each individual plant to new pots of any size, though I'd recommend starting smaller. You could also cluster them, though that just accelerates the eventual need to re-divide. Make sure the soil is very well-draining, as the plants will be susceptible to rot from too much water. These guys are tough though! Good luck!