I would like to grow more Aloes here in the Valley of the Sun, but with the level of care I am able to give them and the super hot (weeks of 110F+, with more and more 115F+ days each year) and initially very dry period of the early summer which transitions in the less hot, but still 105F+ and also humid and wet monsoon here, when it is possible to have multiple days if not the occasional week or more when the night time low temperatures are above 90F (thank you urban heat island effect) makes it pretty difficult to consistently keep many Aloes alive. It makes them the highest failure rate plants that I try to grow.
I have killed many an Aloe due to over/under-watering at the wrong time, but also lost plenty of them where I am still not sure what it was... They'd be fine for years, but then one year not. I suspect the summer climate as described above. It is worse for most, but not all potted Aloes - many of the miniature hybrid aloes with the textured leaves actually do fine here in super well draining mix and shallow pots/bowls. However, most other Aloes really need to be in the ground to even have shot at survival, and even then even with ample shade and irrigation the summer is still very harsh for most of them.
I know it can be done, because I know people who have significant numbers of different Aloes growing here, but they all tend to have way more time to devote to their care. Additionally Boyce Thompson Arboretum which is at slightly higher elevation and outside of the urban area so see lower daytime highs and nighttime lows throughout the summer has an excellent collection of large mature Aloes.
Obviously the more xeric Aloe species do well here, but as our winters have become milder and milder, some of the more tropical Aloes that are really tender are showing up more and more too.
Here some pictures of some of my plants. These are all fairly recent so it is the wrong time of year for many flowers:
Aloe xnobilis, which is mostly in the shade, but every summer still tends to have some sunburnt leaves from exposure to the low angle setting sun.
Aloe hybrid 'pickled pink' (I think, if not, it is Aloe hybrid 'lizard lips') in one of my multi-Aloe and haworthia shallow bowls that I have left to get terribly overgrown and messy:
Aloe hybrid 'Wiley Coyotee', a Zimmerman hybrid from a recent ISI release:
Aloe hybrid 'Coral Fire' not being very fiery:
A hanging bowl with Aloe hybrid 'Spiney', Aloe hybrid 'Doran Black' (that is what the label said it was at least) and an unknown hybrid behind it:
Another hanging bowl with Aloe hybrid 'Pink Blush', Aloe melanacantha and Aloe erinacea:
Another bowl with Aloes (unknown hybrids) Haworthias and in the small pot in front of it an Aloe hybrid I got from Stush:
Another unnamed hybrid among a couple of Haworthias, it has a bulbil on a spent flower stalk:
Aloe trichosantha, which has been doing well, though it has not flowered yet:
My clump of true Aloe vera on the left next to a presumed Aloe thraskii hybrid, which is probably about to die (its head had started leaning in an odd way so I went and explored. No obvious rot, but something is up with it:
The pride of my Aloe collection: Aloe hybrid 'Hercules' keeps getting taller and taller, will it ever flower?
The main clump of Aloes here is another presumed Aloe thraskii hybrid (the fact that this was clumping before it started forming a trunk makes me suspect its hybrid nature. Aloe thraskii is supposed to be a single trunked tree Aloe). Next to it on the left something that I will probably have to grow old for to see anything spectacular, but it is an Aloe suzannae. Behind the clump of larger leaved Aloe thraskii hybrids is a large clump of a so far un-identified spotted Aloe, which puts on a great flower display every winter:
This is what came to me as Aloe x spinosissima variegata, but I am not sure of the ID and the plant tends to grow out of the variegation as it increases in size:
Aloe hybrid 'Sawbones', another Zimmerman hybrid from this year's ISI release:
Another one of the 'miniature' hybrid Aloes, this one came unnamed, but given that it was an Altman release, I am pretty sure I could figure out its name. It is on the larger side for these kind of Aloes:
Aloe hybrid 'Delta Lights':
I have a few more, but my photos are a mess - I am years behind on organization and I take many many photos.
From the top of my head:
Aloe eumassawana (only recently determined to be that), but this has been the most bullet proof Aloe for me. All day full sun, looks horrible in the summer, but just keep clumping away and flowering in the spring.
Aloe rupestris, which I have grown from a cutting in a pot, but which I will put in the ground this Fall.
Aloe dichotoma, in the ground for about a year and starting to look like it has settled in.
Aloe ferox needing to go in the ground
Aloe megalacantha - should be about to flower, though after years of being a champ in the summer it took this last summer hard.
I just got something sold to me as Aloe petricola, but on second thought as I looked at it unloading it from the truck it was mis-ID and it is in all likelihood a variety of Aloe capitata.
I got a bunch of spotted Aloes that are doing well in the ground. One of them is greatheadii, and another is grandidentata, but some others came nameless so who knows if I will ever know.
I bought an Aloe speciosa last Fall with a 5 foot trunk, but I fear it did not survive the summer... I think that despite planting in the Fall, it did not have enough time to properly root before the summer hit.
Aloe tomentosa - no flowers on that one yet.
Aloe elegans - waiting to go into the ground.
Aloe camperi - doing well slowly getting used to the full summer sun (covered slightly less long with shade cloth each each summer)
I have a few more but that is probably about it.
