Synonyms:

No synonyms are recorded for this species name.

Habitat:

Aloe ‘Doran Black’ is a nursery-produced cultivar and thus doesn’t exist in nature.

Description:

Aloe ‘Doran Black’ is a nursery cultivar, created by Dick Wright, with uncertain origins. It is a highly decorative, rosette-forming plant, that soon occupies all the available space in the pot by forming clumping rosettes. The main peculiarity of this species are its leaves: light green, with a leopard-print in darker green, that differs among specimens and might become also wavy stripes. The spots might be also prominent and rough, if you skim them with your fingertips. Rosettes become up to 20 centimeters in diameter and 30 in height, perfectly fitting a small pot. Flowers are the typical ones of Aloes: bell-shaped, with their petals fused on each other, orange to red or copper, grouped in a spike-shaped inflorescence that’s borne on a long, succulent, grey stem.

Cultivation:

Aloe ‘Doran Black’ is an easy species to grow and it’s very rewarding. Here below are our tips:

Put it in light shade or filtered sun. Avoid to expose it directly to the intense sunlight of hot summer days. It needs however a bright spot. A bright windowshill is ideal.
It can tolerate moderate frost if its substrate stays completely dry. However, to stay safe, we advise to put it indoors during the Winter or, at least, to shelter it from Winter rains to avoid root rotting. In Spring and Summer it definitely prefers to grow outdoors.
Watering should be regular in Summer (around once a week), more unfrequent in Autumn, up to completely suspended in Winter.
Choose a well-drained substrate: a succulent mix or either a standard nursery compost with some sand, gravel or perlite added will do good.
Fertilization is not necessary. You can use a specific product for succulents once a year during the Spring, diluting it with water at half the doses recommended on the label.
Aloe ‘Doran Black’ should be repotted once a year, in Spring, or anytime it outgrows its pot.

Propagation:

The propagation can be carried out by cuttings and offsets. To detach an offset and replant is actually the easiest method.

Curiosity:

Though Aloe are often used for their medicinal properties, Aloe ‘Doran Black’ is usually not. It is more of a decorative species. The genus name “Aloe” comes from the greek word “alsos” and refers to the bitter gel contained in its leaves. “Alsos”, in fact, is probably derived from a hebrew and an arab word that mean both “bitter”.

Official Web Site:
www.giromagi.com

Italian Blog:
www.giromagicactus.com

Tips:
Read our advice