Plant in full sun in a well-drained soil and give little to occasional irrigation - this is certainly a plant that will tolerate drought conditions. Hardiness is as yet determined but has handled temperatures just below freezing and likely is a bit hardier but in cooler winter months the foliage seems to be paler. This plant is a nice yellow flowering landscape aloe with attractive gray leaves very similar to Aloe porphyrostachys and attractive yellow flowers much like Aloe vera and blooming at the same time, but they are a little darker.

We first received this plant unidentified from a plant growing in a Santa Barbara garden that had come from plantsman and CSSA journal editor Tim Harvey, who raised it from seed received as Aloe porphyrostachys ssp. koenenii from French world traveler, author and plant explorer Joel Lode. Aloe koenenii is a red to orange flowered aloe that grows naturally in rocky slopes above the ancient and historical city of Petra in southern Jordan, famous for its rock-cut architecture and water conduit system. It was first described by John Lavranos and Kerstin Koch in 2006. The specific epithet honors the German horticultural Manfred Koenen, who collected the type specimen in Jordan. Lode was also responsible for the remaining Aloe koenenii as a variety of Aloe porphyrostachys in a 2007 edition of his journal, Cactus-Adventures International (73: 33). This name has been accepted by some and referenced in Aloe: The Definitive Guide (Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, 2011) by Susan Carter, John Lavranos, Len Newton and Colin Walker but they listed the plant in this book as Aloe koenenii. To honor Joel Lode and to note that this particular plant, which likely is a Aloe koenenii hybrid as it has yellow flowers instead of the normal carmine red to dark orange flowers of this species, we call this plant 'Lode's Yellow'. 

The information about Aloe 'Lode's Yellow' that is displayed on this web page is based on research conducted in our nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We will also include observations made about this plant as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We also incorporate comments that we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they share cultural information that aids others growing this plant.