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Aloe 'Samson' – A striking and robust tree aloe that likely will grow to be 10 to 20 feet. It has 2-foot-long wide mid-green lanceolate leaves that recurve back slightly and beautiful salmon colored flowers emerging from orange buds on tight short spikes held tight to stem tips in fall and winter.
Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil. Based on the parentage of this hybrid this plant should grow well in our mediterranean climate with minimal additional irrigation and be hardy to at least 27°F.
This hybrid between the very tall reddish pink flowering Aloe barberae from Natal and the yellow flowering more shrubby Aloe ramosissima of the Northern Cape was created by aloe enthusiast Sarmis Luters. There may be other plants also using the name 'Samson' as part of the super hero tree aloe series that includes 'Goliath' (A. barberae x A. vaombe) and 'Hercules' (A. barberae x A. dichotoma).
We purchased our stock plant of this cultivar in the auction of the Aloe Summit held at Lotusland in 2013 and named it 'Samson' in 2016 at the time that we first started selling this plant. At that time, we were unaware of any other aloes having this name, but since we have become aware of other hybrid aloes sharing it, including a plant only listed as a Quiver Tree (Aloe dichotoma) hybrid from De Wett Aloes in South Africa and a Aloe dichotoma cross with Aloe barberae (the reverse of the parentage of the popular Aloe 'Hercules) that is offered by Rancho Soledad Nursery. This name confusion has prompted Jeff Chemnick at Aloes in Wonderland to use the name 'Spartacus' for this same plant instead. As this plant's parents have been reclassified as species of Aloidendron, this hybrid would correctly be called Aloidendron 'Samson', Aloidendron 'Spartacus' or whatever other superhero name gets applied to it.
This information about Aloe 'Samson' displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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