PlantFiles: Aloe
Aloe hemmingii

This species has no problem with the heat or frosts of the Arizona desert. It often flowers during the summer when not much else is doing anything, but also flowers randomly throughout the year. A welcome addition to the desert that seems to look best in filtered light.

Zone 9b coastal Otago New Zealand

I grow mine indoors, so I cant comment on it's hardiness, though it's so totally undemanding that I wouldn't argue with anyone who says it's a toughie.
I too was sucked in by the classic story- bought it at a homewares shop, label assuring me it was aloe harlana (Ive come across a number of surprisingly uncommon species in this particular place so it never crossed by mind that it was too good to be true), took it home, gloating over my amazing purchase, and waited for it to get large. And waited, and waited. Doh!
I mustnt complain about this very lovely little plant, though- with it's lizardy speckles, cute mini spines and nice gloss it's really a star. Mine's starting to pup at about 15cm across. It's never rotted, scarred, gone black-tip or sulked, in fact it's so perfect it looks fake! A colony of these beneath a trunking aloe would be superkool.
Mine grows on a windowsill in half shade. I water once a week or so year round. Nice!

smaller, flattly oriented, shiny. stiff and spotted- leaved aloe from Somalia.. has simple pale pink flowers most of the year (at least late summer straight through spring). Rapidly becoming one of the most commonly sold aloes at nursery outlet centers... I always see these for sale there... must be easy growers. So far I have had no problems with any- survive in full sun, full shade, heavy water, no water...

This aloe is commonly misidentified as the much larger and much rarer Aloe harlana, a wonderful solitary species with similar spotting and similarly shiny, stiff spiny leaves. Aloe harlana has about a 1'-1.5' diameter (2-3x the size of aloe hemmingii) and is nearly always solitary (aloe hemingii is either solitary or a prolific offsetter). Aloe harlana has large red to dark red flowers, sometimes orange flowers, but as far as I know, never pink flowers. Also Aloe harlana only flowers once a year, while Aloe hemingii flowers all year round. Aloe hemmingii inflorescence usually is unbranched, or rarely, has 1-2 branches. Compare this with Aloe harlana or somaliensis which always have multilbranched infloresences. I have never seen Aloe harlana for sale at home depot, while Aloe hemmingii is always there (Targets, too). In fact, I am still looking for A harlana (rare in cultivation) for my garden.