Aloinopsis schooneesii. Enough vowels for you? Not all that common, a bit of a specialist plant. Should flower at the end of winter if it gets enough light, yellow to orange flowers, quite large compared to the tiny leaves. Full sun, it will grow in the cooler parts of the year and probably be dormant in summer so don't water much in summer and don't be surprised if it doesn't grow at that time. It is highly succulent and has a large taproot so it is very resistant to drought. Always allow to dry out before you water.

Thanks. It's a large, dense bush, and it looks like the scale is all the way onto the main trunks, so unless there's a treatment I may have to dig out the whole thing. :-(

Good topic! Back in early May, I was planning a big college graduation party for our son (in the state he was graduating, not ours). I called in my final head count from home before we left for the big day and the woman who identified herself as the assistant manager asked me for my credit card number and info to guarantee all this. Not finding this terribly unusual, I gave it to her. Two months later she ordered herself a lot of expensive jewelry with my credit card number. Turns out she was just a waitress, but had a rap sheet in two states for theft etc. The restaurant had never bothered with a background check on her! All this gal needed was a credit card number, name of user and exp. date. When they found her, she had a very long list of other credit card numbers in her posession. Scary! My advice is to be very careful during the holidays especially, when extra help is hired and may not be fully checked out. And keep a close watch on every charge on every credit card bill. Because this gal did not have my actual credit card in hand, I wasn't responsible for the charges, but it took months of credit searches, MANY letters, cancelling our credit card and fiing police reports in three states before I could rest (semi)easy again!

I wanted to share a couple other ways your identy/money can be stolen. Both happened to me. By the way, I'm really sorry you've gone through this. It is so frustrating. It seems like the majority of id theft is from credit cards. This first one happened years ago, when this was a relatively new crime, but it wasn't credit. Someone took my name and driver's licence number and the account number of a closed checking account. Then they created a new account and went shopping, at Sears, Macy's, Home Depot, and Victoria's Secret. All in one day. They almost got cought at VS, which ended their shopping spree. I believe they got over $3,000 in merchandise. It was a NIGHTMARE trying to convince all the different agencies and stores that I wasnt the thief. I didn't lose any money, but my driver's license number is still flagged with telecheck. Sixteen years later. BTW, after I made contact with Macy's to explain the situation, Macy's started billing me for the $900 purchase. We had a pretty heated conversation about how they wouldn't even have my information if I hadn't called them to do the right thing. The other was just a couple years ago. I was going over my bank statement and saw a payment to a cell phone company that we don't use. I checked a few monthes prior and noticed I had been paying someone elses bills. Cell phone and the utility bills. The utility bill was easy to miss because I use the same company. It was the cell bill that tipped me off. Someone used the account and routing number off a check one of us wrote and was paying her bills online. Once I cought it, I called the bank PG&E, and Verizon and had everything taken care of. The utility companies went after her on their own, so I don't know the outcome. There was a name on the accounts, but I was told it was probably fake. So anyway, these are just a couple more areasto consider and keep an eye on. Also, Sears can be kinda shifty. I would still be a little suspicious of them. I would not put it past them to issue you an unsolicited credit card. On the off chance that you accept it. It doesn't make much sense for a credit thief to have the card sent to your house. Unless, they were watching your house hoping to intercept your mail