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Aloe 'Giddy Flame' - A neat clustering non-trunk forming aloe with 2-foot-tall rosettes of narrow gray-green leaves. In late winter into spring arise the branched inflorescences hold conical racemes of pinkish orange flowers that are darkest in bud near the top of the inflorescence and lighter as they open from the bottom up. Plant in full to part sun in a moderately well-drained soil and irrigate occasionally to infrequently. It is hardy to frost and short duration cold down to the low 20s. This is a very nice strong and showy aloe that is useful in smaller gardens as it doesn't get as robust as its one parent, the common Aloe arborescens.
Aloe 'Giddy Flame' has been growing since the mid-1970s in the Huntington Botanic Garden Desert Garden (as HBG 32489). It was received by them it in 1973 without a cultivar name just as Aloe cryptopoda x Aloe arborescens from the late Cynthia Giddy (1933-1998). Giddy was a South African conservationist and horticulturist who had a nursery called Umlaas Nursery in Natal, South Africa. The Huntington Botanic Garden released this plant through their International Succulent Introductions (ISI) program in 2001 as ISI 01-18 Aloe cryptopoda x Aloe arborescens and we were fortunate to get this plant from them to build up stock on. Much like another aloe that Cynthia Giddy did not designate with an appellation that bears her name as Aloe 'Cynthia Giddy', this plant is thought to be one of Giddy's own hybrids, but it seems that this information is no longer verifiable. Other plants we grow that came from Gidddy's Umlaas Nursery include Aloe 'Rooikappie', Aloe 'Tingtinkie' and Gasteria croucheri 'Cynthia Giddy'. This wonderful Aloe cryptopoda x A. arborescens hybrid plant has gone nearly 50 years without a cultivar name but it was also not widely circulated commercially. In 2020, as we put out the first crops of this plant to sell in our field and named it 'Giddy Flame' to honor Cynthia Giddy and also to reference its fiery red hot poker like flowers. The images showing this plant flowering in the Huntington's Desert Garden courtesy of John Trager.
Information displayed on this page about Aloe 'Giddy Flame' 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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