Aloe, Dawe's Aloe 'Jacob's Ladder'

So far this has thrive through a Texas heat wave and a drought with no watering under my live oak. It has sent out 10 bloom stalks out...Read More its first year in situ, and I hope to see it survive our 8b winter. I am a bit concerned about the 9b rating here. The nursery where I bought it has had one growing for a year when I bought it. I leave it under the tree more for protection from cold than from the sun. We will see If I succeed or if I have to throw a frost cover over it. I do like it as a shade plant and I am wondering abouyt its characteristics in the sun. I guess I need to take a cutting off of it and establish to populations to see.

Zone 9b coastal Otago New Zealand.
I have to say I love my Dawei though it is initially non-spectacular at about 2 years old; I bo...Read Moreught it with no expectations and it arrived shriveled and decrepit. With a 2/3 to 1/3 potting mix to pumice ratio it has fattened up and thrived since then into a curiously green fellow with a few tiny white spots to the inner third of the leaves. The colour is difficult to describe but is a lovely vivid 'colombian emerald' hue that really draws the eye with it's intense singularity. I havent seen this mentioned in regard to Dawes Aloe before so I suppose I must just have a weird specimen!
Some aloes are just 'happy' and vigorous in pot culture without giving you any sleepless nights and this is one of them.
Likes regular generous watering through summer but of course you shouldnt drown it. I feed my aloes once a year with blood and bone.
Seems to enjoy a little shade during the hottest part of the day too.
Hasn't been through a hard frost yet but I wouldn't leave it out in a fierce one.
I really love this aloe without being able to exactly tell you why :-)

Average looking bright green rosettes up to 2-3' tall (stemless) pointing upright, with red-orange to orange branched flowers in winter. ...Read More Native of central Africa (primarily Uganda).

Attractive hybrid created at the Huntington Gardens in Pasadena, California. Called this because of the unique arranged of the flowers along the racemes- straight out across from each other like the rungs of a ladder. Stiff, smooth and slight recurved leaves with sharp defined teeth along the leaf margins. Suckering short-branched plant- creates a neat attractive shrub about 3' tall and 3' wide

The 'normal' Aloe dawei has redder flowers, and they tend to be less 'stretched out' along the raceme than this cultivar... those flowers look more like pom-poms than they do in this cultivar.