Two aloe mass plantings in Santa Barbara in full flower

When I visited San Marcos Growers last year, manager Randy Baldwin told me about a mass planting of Aloe ‘Birds and Bees’ at an office park in nearby Goleta. Of course I had to see for myself. As it turned out, it was even more spectacular than I had expected (see post here).

Aloe ‘Birds and Bees’ was introduced by San Marcos Growers in 2013 from seed Brian Kemble collected at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek. According to the San Marcos Growers website, the seed parent was Aloe arborescens and the pollen parent is thought to be Aloe thraskii. SMG selected and evaluated five seedlings from the original seeds that germinated. This one was chosen for its bicolored flowers and named ‘Birds and Bees’ because it was the result of open pollination rather than intentional hybridization.

If left to its own devices, ‘Birds and Bees’ forms a shrubby clump similar to its Aloe arborescens parent. That’s great for some situations, like creating a privacy screen, but many suburban gardens are too small for that. However, when you remove the offsets that form along the stem, ‘Birds and Bees’ becomes a spectacular specimen plant – essentially a 6-7 ft. tree aloe. That’s what the landscapers did at the Goleta office park:

Aloe ‘Birds and Bees’

As Randy Baldwin had told me, the landscaping company bought the plants for this project from San Marcos Growers in 2018: 18 Aloe ‘Birds and Bees’ in 5-gallon cans, as well as Aloe ‘Rooikappie’, Agave titanota, and Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’. The plantings have been maintained impeccably. Only a few of the aloes had small offsets along the stems; most didn’t.

Note the tall flower stalk from an Agave titanota

I probably went a bit overboard with the camera, but the plants looked too good to stop after one or two photos.

Randy gave me some ‘Birds and Bees’ cuttings last year and I planted the biggest one in the sidewalk bed in front of our house. It should be blooming size in a few years. With San Marcos Growers shutting down operations at the end of the year, ‘Birds and Bees’ will continue on as a living legacy.

The agaves looked pretty darn good, too (here Agave titanota and a small Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’)

Close-up of ‘Birds and Bees’ flowers

Randy Baldwin also told me about another mass planting of aloes in Goleta, not far from the office park above. The aloes there are Aloe ‘Jacob’s Ladder’, thought to be an Aloe dawei hybrid. It has been growing in the Huntington Desert Garden for many years and was made available to the public in 2003 through the Huntington’s International Succulent Introductions program. ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ forms clumps to 3 ft. in height, with each rosette eventually growing to a width of 2 ft.

I photographed the mass planting of ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ in the morning and then again in the afternoon. I got good images both times:

Morning light illuminating Aloe ‘Jacob’s Ladder’

Afternoon light

Some plants were green, others had purple hues that complemented the orange color of the flowers

Companion plants include Aloe vilmoriniana, Callistemon ‘Little Jim’...

...and Agave ‘Blue Flame’

Like the aloes, these Agave ‘Blue Flame’...

...looked pretty much perfect

According to Randy, this planting of Aloe ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ started with 37 5 gallons purchased from San Marcos Growers in December 2021, followed by another 33 in the spring of 2022, for a total of 70. Assuming, conservatively, that each original ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ has produced three offsets since then, there should now be close to 300 plants. No wonder the overall effect is so striking.

Bonus. Across the street from the ‘Birds and Bees’ office park I noticed this interesting shrub:

Euphorbia pulcherrima

On closer inspection, I realized that it’s a regular garden poinsettia grown to the size of a small tree! Because poinsettias are notoriously tender, you only get a display like this in a frost-free location like Santa Barbara. Come to think of it, I’d be happier in a frost-free climate, too!

© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.