Aloe 'Safari Sunset'

The gorgeous blooming aloes in the first photo are sadly not my own, but from one of my absolute favorite gardens anywhere. I saw these in the garden of Jim Bishop and Scott Borden on the day of the winter solstice, 2018. These bright and cheery plants electrified the last rays of sunlight that afternoon. Scott and Jim’s garden is my favorite in San Diego and for good reason. They are on a one-acre lot with a north-facing precariously steep slope- a lot that would be my last choice for a successful garden and have turned it into a masterpiece. These aloes were bred specifically for resistance to aloe mite and are a great choice for a rock garden or to use as a short ground cover. These aloes are Aloe ‘Safari Sunset’ and I was thrilled to find them at Rogers’s Gardens in Corona Del Mar a few days later.

I recognized them and then looked at the price tag. Yikes! 18.99 for a somewhat rootbound one gallon. Despite the hefty price tag I bought one for my garden and one as a Hanukkah present for Nan Sterman. I would have loved more, but not at that price. I’m c h e a...no, I’m very frugal.

Before you complain and bemoan that steep price, consider this. The breeding program this sweet hybrid came from, began in 1973 in South Africa started by Charles Andrew De Wet. Yes, you read that correctly, 1973! What year are we in? 2019! I’m nearly a senior citizen and I was in the ninth grade when breeding began for this plant. It didn’t come to the United States until 2014 as part of the Safari series of aloes: A. ‘Safari Sunset’, ‘Safari Sunrise’, ‘Safari Orange’, and ‘Safari Pink’. Monrovia nursery began marketing ‘Safari Sunset’ in 2016.

Considering all that time and effort and the extraordinary virtues of this sweet little aloe, 19 bucks is a steal.

This plant is licensed and patented and rightly so! Mr. De Wet deserves just compensation for his hard work. You can’t propagate it and sell it at all. However...you can divide your own plants and use them for your own use in your own garden.

The second photo is from today and shows one of my two stands of A. ‘Safari Sunset’. From an admittedly expensive 1 gallon plant I divided into 14 pieces and they all stuck, and 1/2 of the pieces are now larger than the original mother plant. All in all, a little over a dollar each. Compare at 18.99. I can’t wait for them to bloom!