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Aloe 'David Verity' - A robust clumping plant to 6 feet tall by as wide or wider with 12- to 18-inch-wide rosettes of bold silver-blue slightly recurving leaves that blush reddish near the tips. In mid to late winter appear the branching multi-colored flower spikes rising just about foliage with tight pink buds in a spiraled pattern that darken to red before the flowers begin opening a cream white to pale butter yellow from the bottom of the spike to the top, displaying both red and white colors at the same time.
Plant in full sun to light shade in a moderately well-drained soil. This drought tolerant plant does great in coastal California with little to no supplementary irrigation but likely would do better inland with occasional to infrequent watering. It has proven hardy to at least 25 degrees F without damage and likely is a bit hardier. We first saw this plant in 2005 growing in the garden of succulent plant enthusiast David Tufenkian's home north of Santa Barbara in Tecolote Canyon, which is notably one of the colder locations in our area and it is also growing very well on the ocean bluffs in a garden in Malibu, showing it tolerates near coastal conditions. It is a great specimen aloe used singly or massed with other aloes and succulents - with its stature it can make an impressive screening or barrier plant.
Aloe 'David Verity' was first introduced by the Huntington Botanic Garden's International Succulent Introductions in 2001 (ISI#2001-20) from a plant growing at the Huntington Botanical Gardens (HBG 49146). This plant was originally given to the Huntington by the Paul Hutchison of Tropic World Nursery but had been selected and named by UCLA Biology professor Boyd Walker, who grew out some of Dave Verity's hybrids at his Pacific Palisades garden. David Verity (1930-2020) was the long-time horticulturist and garden manager at UCLA's Mildred Mathias Botanic Garden. He had hybridized many aloes and was well known for his Mimulus (monkey flower) hybrids that were called the Verity Hybrids.
The parentage of this Aloe hybrid is not certain but is thought to be a cross between an Aloe arborescens hybrid (with red buds and chrome-yellow flowers) with Aloe × principis, itself a natural hybrid between Aloe arborescens and Aloe ferox that is also known as Aloe salm-dyckiana. Contrary to other information circulating, there is only one aloe cultivar named Aloe 'Dave Verity'. The Huntington Botanic Gardens has planted, in their garden behind the Desert Conservatory, various orange flowering hybrids that resulted from crossing Aloe ‘David Verity’ with a hybrid identified as Aloe 'Marlothrask', a hybrid between Aloe marlothii and Aloe thraskii and this may have led to some confusion about there being multiple plants called Aloe 'David Verity'. Our plants and the information about this great hybrid came from John Trager, the Desert Garden Curator at the Huntington Botanical Gardens.
The information about Aloe 'David Verity' that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.
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