A. hemmingii is often sold as the rarer A. harlana. Altman's Plants, which supplies my Lowe's, does this. From what I have seen, A. harlana gets much bigger, and does not usually grow offsets, unlike hemmingii. A. hemmingii is a beautiful plant, and to my surprise, mine sent up a flower spike a short while ago, and the flowers will be pink when they open. Enjoy your Aloes. Christopher

Izzrd,m I'll keep my eye out for hercules. As you said though, I suppose for now if I want the quick trees I should just go with Goliath and any head that falls I can use for another tree. I'm going to be doing the landscaping at a lot of friends and family houses so the more cuttings and fast growing plants the better. I like my little Aeonium" factories". They just keep popping out heads and the more I just keep propagating into new plants ;-) Amazing garden Hoobv. Wow I'd love one like that some day. I had read that the plicatilis has lots of issues with growth, like they get a lot of black lower leaves and prone to rot. Has this been the case with yours? What area of SoCal are you in? Cactuscharris- for some reason I'm not able to purchase the plicatilis on that site, not sure if it's a gliche or if they're just out of that particular plant!!! Cool I was searching google and there are some variagated forms of the aloe trees!! Very cool.. ...so many succulents, so little time (and money!)

Most aloes are Z9b. Some go colder but 8b gets you aloe macrocentra, and aristata, You might be able to grow aloe polyhylla if your summers are not too hot. Your moisture might be a problem though. I protect all of mine that I grow in Z8b.

If you are 7b , I would not. I would definitely cover them very well with mulch and a blanket on the cold fronts. They get cover here in 8b. I lost many aloes when it dipped to 12F and that was an 8a. My A. grandidenta came beck from the root and they were covered well. My whole relationship with aloes , is that they are clustered together and I have ones in pots and and ones in the ground so if I loose them, I still have some to make more babies. I don't winter any that I am not prepared to loose. It is marginal here. Even in Austin , it is better. I can not imagine growing them further north but I hear that some do. It is all about spaces, and ground preparation and hardening them off. The weather guy that I listen too for long range predictions says that it is a cold winter for Texas this year. Possibly a cold WET one with this Midoki El Niño. If we are projected to get down to 15, I might up root a few and take them into my shop.