Aloe Christmas Carol Guide: How to Grow & Care for “Christmas Aloe”

With Christmas day and the festive season approaching, you may be looking for a plant that suits your Christmas table arrangement. Here’s an idea: Aloe Christmas Carol plant!

Aloe Christmas Carol plant is a very cute and small slow-growing succulent that can bring a fresh touch to your home or garden (and Christmas table arrangement). This green and red succulent grows in the shape of a star. As a result, the plant received a festive and Christmasy name, that suggests its resemblance to the Star of Bethlehem, said to have revealed the birth of Jesus on the night of 24th of December.

This adorable succulent is an excellent festive plant for ‘the most wonderful time of the year’. What’s more, it’s not toxic to people, so you don’t have to worry that it may be dangerous to use it as an ornamental plant.

Aloe Christmas Carol is a hybrid developed by Kelly Griffin, and it is thought to include Aloe ’Doran Black” as a parent. The plant has plenty of landscape uses from container to ground cover, houseplant, mass planting, or rock gardens. Thanks to its star shape and lovely red and green colors, this plant can look great pretty much everywhere.

Fun fact: the Aloe Christmas Carol plant turns redder when it’s happily “stressed.”

Are you ready to learn more about how to grow and care for your Aloe Christmas Carol? Keep reading below!

About Aloe Christmas Carol

• The Aloe Christmas Carol plant belongs to the family of Asphodelaceae.
• This versatile and easy-to-grow succulent is a great addition to rock gardens. You can use it for mass planting or grow it in a container as a home plant. Either way, the Aloe Christmas Carol plant will look great in any environment.
• Keep in mind its green and red color when choosing a container. It can look great in a red or white-colored container.
• Like most succulents, Aloe Christmas Carol succulents prefer sunny spots but can also adapt to partial shade. They perform best in places where they get full sunlight. So, we recommend finding a spot in your home where it gets direct bright sun.
• Aloe Christmas Carol has typical water needs for succulents. And, like most succulents, they are very sensitive to overwatering as they are prone to root rot. If you don’t want to kill your Aloe Christmas Carol, make sure you don’t overwater it. How do you make sure of that? Allow the soil to dry out completely between waterings.
• When it comes to climate preferences, Aloe Christmas Carol succulents love warm temperatures. These plants are not cold-hardy, and the minimum they can survive is 30 ° F (-1.1 ° C).
• If you live in an area that frequently gets subzero temperatures, we recommend growing your plant in a container that you can keep indoors or move inside during the cold season.
• Aloe Christmas Carol is summer dormant, meaning that it has a temporary inactive phase during this season. During this phase, you must not fertilize or water your plant.
• Another thing to know about the red Aloe is that it doesn’t require often repotting since it is a slow-growing succulent. Of course, first-time repotting after you buy the plant from the store is essential.
• As we’ve already mentioned, Aloe Christmas Carol is not known to be toxic for people. Yet, it can be toxic to pets. So, if you grow your plant indoors, make sure you place it somewhere out of your pets’ reach.

Aloe Christmas Carol Features: An overview

• Aloe Christmas Carol plants are slow-growing succulents known for their unique look.
• These plants feature rosettes of dark green leaves with bright red trim and yellow bumps that run across the leaves and border the edges. When stressed correctly, the leaves of these plants get even redder.
• Aloe Christmas Carol can grow up to 12 inches (30 cm) in diameter and nearly 6 inches (15 cm) long when reaching maturity.
• In the fall, this red Aloe produces flowers of bright pink to red-orange color. The blooming can also happen during the winter.

Growing Aloe Christmas Carol

Aloe Christmas Carol plants are really easy to grow and care for. They have the same growing needs and requirements as other types of Aloe succulents. So, if you already have a succulent or two in your garden, you shouldn’t worry that you may kill your plant. But, even if you are a novice grower, caring for an Aloe Christmas Carol plant shouldn’t give you a hard time.

Now, let’s dig deeper into how to grow your Aloe Christmas Carol succulent.

First, you need to make sure that you respect your plant’s lighting requirements. As we’ve already said, this plant loves bright, direct sun, which is the reason why it is best grown outdoors where it gets full light. Yet, your plant can also adapt to partial shade if necessary. So, we recommend finding the brightest spot in your home where your Aloe Christmas Carol will get enough sunlight to thrive.

Red Aloes don’t usually need fertilizing to grow healthy and happy. But, we’re pretty sure your plant can benefit from the extra nutrients found in fertilizing products. Just keep in mind that you shouldn’t fertilize the plant during summer when it has its inactive phase.

Planting Aloe Christmas Carol

Planting an Aloe Christmas Carol is really easy. All you have to do is to pay attention to its basic growing requirements, including well-draining soil, a lot of sunlight, and warm temperatures.

Like most succulents, Aloe Christmas Carol needs soil that provides good drainage. The plant hates wet feet, and it is prone to root rot. In fact, overwatering your plant is a surefire way to kill it. So, to make sure that you offer it extra protection against overwatering, use well-draining soil when planting it.

You can prepare well-draining soil using potting soil, turface, and crushed granite. In this mix, crushed granite is particularly important because it helps allow the water to flow through the empty paths.

Next, keep in mind that this plant is not cold-hardy, meaning that you must protect it from really low temperatures. The minimum temperature the plant can survive is 30° F (-1.1° C). with that in mind, if you live in an area that gets colder than that, we recommend planting your Aloe Christmas Carol in a container which you can keep indoors or bring it inside during the cold months.

You also need to consider this succulent’s lighting requirements when planting it. If you choose to plant it outdoors, make sure you choose an area of your garden where it gets at least 6 hours of sunlight every day. If you plant it in a container and keep it indoors, place it in a sunny spot that gets a lot of bright sunlight.

Watering Aloe Christmas Carol

Unless you want to kill your Aloe Christmas Carol plant, don’t overwater it! Overwatering is the biggest threat to this plant.

Aloe Christmas Carol plants have the same typical watering needs as most succulents and cacti. In fact, they might even need a bit less water than other succulents. They don’t like wet feet and are prone to root rot, which is why they need well-draining soil.

The best way to make sure you don’t overwater your Aloe Christmas Carol plant is to use the “soak and dry” method. In other words, allow the soil to dry out completely before watering the plant again. During cooler months, you’ll probably have to cut back on the water almost completely.

An important thing to keep in mind while growing Aloe succulents is pouring off any excess water if, by mistake, you poured too much in the container.

Aloe Christmas Carol, From Amazon

Propagating Aloe Christmas Carol

Luckily, propagating this cute small succulent is also really easy. Aloe Christmas Carol propagates via offsets, cuttings, or seeds from a mature plant. The plant does not propagate from leaves, and we recommend not even trying because you’ll find your leaves rooting.

To propagate your mature Aloe Christmas Carol by offsets, pull some offsets up and allow them to dry for a couple of days before replanting.

In Conclusion

There are so many things to love about Aloe Christmas Carol plants.

They are really easy to grow and care for, especially if you’ve cared for other succulents before, but even if you are a novice grower. As long as you consider their basic growing requirements, your plants will thrive.

Aloe Christmas Carol plants are unique-looking succulents, which makes them lovely ornamental plants in both interior and exterior environments. You can plant your Aloe Christmas Carol in a colorful container and keep it indoors, be it in your office or home, or integrate it outdoors to your rock garden. Either way, this plant is going to bring a fresh touch to the place.

Aloe Christmas Carol plants can be great ornamental plants for Christmas table arrangements as well and your guests will surely love them. So why not propagate them and offer them as gifts?

What type of Aloe succulents are you growing? Share your experience with us in the comments!