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Aloe 'David's Delight' (Dave's Red Aloe) - A long blooming upright growing low branching aloe to 3 feet tall with many vertical stems holding narrow green leaves and erect branching inflorescences with red flowers much of the year with peak bloom mid to late summer.
Plant in a well-drained soil in full sun to light shade and water occasionally to infrequently - quite drought tolerant in coastal gardens. Cold hardy down to at least 25° F as was undamaged in our garden here at those temperatures in 2007. This is a nice upright growing aloe that repeat blooms through most of the year.
Aloe 'David's Delight' is a common sight in Santa Barbara gardens and certainly has affinities to the eastern and central African Dawe's Aloe, Aloe dawei. We first got this great reblooming aloe from aloe hybridizer John Bleck who told us it was a Aloe dawei hybrid that had been developed by David Verity (1930-2020), who was the long-time horticulturist and garden manager at UCLA's Mildred Mathias Botanic Garden. Bleck noted that Dave had done many such hybrids but didn't have the room in his own garden to grow on to see how they matured so he shared them with his many friends. One such plant grown on in UCLA Biology professor Boyd Walker's garden was later named a href="plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=3842" target="_blank">Aloe 'David Verity' to honor David and it is believed that this aloe was one that he might have shared and never seen mature and flower. We had long had this plant growing in our garden and at the 2013 Aloe Summit held at Ganna Walska Lotusland we were able to show Dave this plant in flower, give one to him and get his approval to name it 'Davids Delight'. We have grown it under this name ever since.
Information displayed on this page about Aloe 'David's Delight' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.
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