12/06/2024
December Plant Highlight: Aloe tongaensis (Aloidendron tongaense)
The area where Aloe tongaensis occurs, in southern Mozambique and northeastern South Africa, is warm and tropical, so plants in habitat do not experience freezing temperatures. In cultivation, it can tolerate brief overnight lows a little below freezing, but not sustained freezes. At the Ruth Bancroft Garden, we grow it where some protection is provided by a high tree canopy above, but it still would not be safe in a very cold winter. In frost-free locations, such as San Francisco or coastal Southern California, it grows rapidly and presents no difficulties. Although it comes from a region of summer rainfall and dry winters, it does not mind the winter rains experienced in California or other Mediterranean climates. It can be grown in a container, but this will limit its size unless a very large container is used.
The curved tubular flowers are orange, yellow-orange, or salmon-orange, with a length of 1.85 inches to 2 inches (47 to 50 mm) and a diameter of .315 inch (8 mm). This is an autumn-flowering species, with its peak bloom in November and December at the Ruth Bancroft Garden, and in April and May in its Southern Hemisphere home.
Read more about this month's plant highlight here: https://www.ruthbancroftgarden.org/plants/aloe-tongaensis-aloidendron-tongaense/
