Aloe bloom preview, early December 2021

A record-breaking rainfall in late October (about 6 inches over four days) followed by a warm November kickstarted this year's aloe flowering season. While it doesn't look like this yet...

Long bed along the sidewalk, late February 2021

...we are about two weeks ahead of where we usually are in early December. 

Let's take a look at the aloes about to flower in our garden. Most of them are the usual suspects, but to my great delight, there are a few first-time bloomers as well. They're marked  ①  below.

Aloe cameronii, one of a handful getting ready to flower

Aloe 'Erik the Red' after I blasted the mealybugs to kingdom come

Aloe capitata var. quartziticola, always a favorite. It's less purple than usual because it's being partially shaded by our ×Mangave 'Kaleidoscope'.

①  Aloe chabaudii was a gift from my friend Justin. It's blooming for the first time this winter.

Aloe wickensii, arguably the most spectacular bloomer in our garden (see the lead photo at the top of this post)

Aloe 'Moonglow'

Aloe petricola with its chunky inflorescence

Aloe bulbillifera hybrid from Jeff Moore in Tucson, blooming repeatedly throughout the year

①  Aloe aculeata, flowering for the first time

①  Aloe 'Apache', flowering for the first time. This is an Altman Plants hybrid sold at The Home Depot and other box stores.

Aloe ferox × capitata (Rancho Soledad hybrid)

①  Aloe capitata 'Yellow Hoodie' (Rancho Tissue introduction), flowering for the first time

Aloe speciosa × barberae (Nick Deinhart hybrid), flowering for the 2nd time

Aloe 'Maui Gem' (A. mawii × globuligemma, Brent Wigand hybrid)

Aloiampelos striatula, growing in a raised vegetable bed. This is one of five cuttings I received from John Miller of the Institute for Aloe Studies. I planted the other four at my mother-in-law's garden in Mount Shasta where they survived temperatures near 0°F last winter (the top growth was killed, but new leaves emerged from near the base). Aloiampelos striatula is considered to be one of the most cold-hardy of all aloes.

①  Aloe betsileensis, flowering for the first time. In full sun, the leaves would have a purple hue.

①  Aloe 'Swordfish', a Kelly Griffin hybrid for Altman Plants (thank you for the ID, Nancy and Shycast100). According to the US patent for 'Swordfish',  the “seed parent is the unpatented Aloe hybrid ‘Sunset’. The pollen parent is an unnamed, unpatented variety of Aloe divaricata. The crossing was made in December 2014 at a commercial greenhouse in Vista, Calif.”

Aloe ericetorum × hoffmannii (Nick Deinhart hybrid)

And finally the one I'm most excited about: This Aloe vaombe (one of two in our garden) is going to flower for the first time! I bought it as an unlabeled mystery plant at Poot's Cactus Nursery in Ripon in March 2017.

①  Aloe vaombe in the bed next to the front door

Aloe vaombe is native to Madagascar and has the potential to grow to 12 ft. It's only hardy to about 27°F, but this plant is in a fairly protected spot under the eaves of the house.

I fell head over heels for Aloe vaombe when I saw it in bloom at the Los Angeles County Arboretum. There are dozens of them in the Arboretum's Madagascar Spiny Forest:

Aloe vaombe and Bismarckia nobilis at the Los Angeles County Arboretum

So far, December has been gray and dry, which has slowed the development of the flowers a bit. But with more rain in the forecast for the weekend, some of the aloes I showed you in this post may be in bloom by Christmas.

12/11/20 UPDATE:

As I was raking leaves this morning, I found another first-time bloomer that has me excited: Aloe alooides. I got it 7 years ago as a 3-inch seedling from Arid Lands Greenhouses in Tucson, AZ. Today it looks like this:

①  Aloe alooides about to flower for the first time

Aloe alooides has a very distinctive unbranched inflorescence, as you can see here.

© Gerhard Bock, 2021. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.