This large, stemless aloe produces beautiful, large flowers. The buds are tea coloured and the flowers open an eye-catching lemon yellow. Although the main flower season is early winter, it will sometimes surprise with a really early inflorescence in April or May(early autumn in South Africa), before the real flower show starts. The flower colour typically deepens as colder weather sets in.
The plant has large, semi-upright grey leaves lines with huge, decorative spines. It occasionally produces stem shoots (suckers) at ground level. These should best be removed, largely because they are pest magnets. Luckily the plant may, upon approaching maturity, divide its rosette, thereby creating a larger base for flower production (=more flowers).
Aloe ‘Lemon Tea’ will be as happy in a large container as on the open rockery. Take care not to over water pots/containers. In combination with a striking red like Aloe ‘Ruby Blaze’ it creates a very pleasing effect indeed.
Best recorded flowering performance: Although the plant in the top picture has 4 inflorescences, the number of racemes has now been surpassed by the same plant with 3 (!) inflorescences. In total there will be 58 racemes when the flowers start apening in late autumn.
Updated 26 April 2019.
