What a beautiful flower array! What is its name? I would like to get one.

¡Qué Bonita!

Yes it was a nice surprise.

That plant is a hybrid you probably will not find in stores. The seed parent was Aloe petricola (a short-stemmed, upright plant with bicolored flowers) and I think the pollen parent was Aloe marlothii (a massive single-stemmed tree with highly branched yellow flowers, usually). That's the plant you're more likely to find, and the closest to the overall look.



Aloe marlothii grows pretty fast, becomes independent quickly, and is a reliable winter bloomer. From what I read it should be hardy to zone 9a. You should be able to pick up a 3-5 gallon plant for a reasonable price. Aloe ferox is similar, relatively common, and also makes outstanding flowers.

Great looking plant! Im assuming you grew this from seed since you know that parent? If so how long to first bloom? The view behind it is interesting too.

I originally got the plant fairly young as a petricola seedling from a serious grower. But it quickly got kind of huge and the flowers are not a match, so I have tried to fill in the dots and guess the paternity based on who else was probably around at flowering time. I could quite likely be wrong -- it's happened before. Fortunately having a marlothii here that flowers at the same time has brought some similarities to light.



Aloe petricola flowers are usually bicolor, and you can actually see a bit of that in the original picture in the slight change from orange to yellow around the time they open.

There's some good stuff in the greenhouse behind this plant. That is in the park, where this aloe was grown to landscape size. I actually installed it there as a sort of guardian plant, to keep people from trying to slip in between the sheets of shade cloth and take plants from inside. I'm guessing it will not get much wider but probably significantly taller.

I noticed your photo in the NGA weekly newsletter a few months ago, and used it for reference in this drawing. Thanks for the inspiration!

@Aleaia, you did a great drawing of it! That photo is one of my favorites.

That is lovely! It looks very much alive.