Last year we offered A. harlana, one of the most beautiful aloes because of its attractively white-spotted, glossy, dark-green leaves. A. hemmingii is equally desirable. It is native to Somalia rather than Ethiopia so is not quite as hardy, and the flowers are a more subdued dusky pinkish rather than glossy red to yellow. Reynolds relates it to the similar but smaller A. jucunda. After many years of cultivation, we finally managed to catch our two parent plants in simultaneous flower to produce the seed for this offering. Seedlings from controlled pollination of HBG 22803 and HBG 50742. The former is ISI 793 (distributed in 1973), Lavranos 6816, collected in the Daloldo Hills, N of Hargeisa, Somalia. The latter (illustrated here) is a propagation of the type collection made by P. R. O.Bally (B7146), June 1, 1949, near Sheikh Pass, some 300 km. W. HBG 135143. $12.
Published in the Cactus and Succulent Journal, Vol. 76 (2), March - April, 2004