Aloes are very popular and some of the most rewarding plants to cultivate. They make excellent accent plants owing to their often strange and inspiring architectures, as well as the bright flowers that offset the grey-green leaves. They are also very suitable as container plants and small aloes can be used very effectively as border plants at the edge of a bed. Although aloes are most often included in rockeries, their application in horticulture is not limited to this feature and they can be used in almost any setting and in conjunction with most common garden plants. Their natural adaptation to harsh and often arid climates makes aloes outstanding subjects for the water-wise garden. Aloe is a genus in the Asphodeloideae family containing about 600 species of flowering succulent plants. Aloes are sometimes confused with Agaves. Contrarily to Agaves, Aloe leaves contain a gel like sap. Another difference is that Aloes don’t die after blooming as most Agaves do.

Aloe castellorum is a small to medium sized aloe from Saudi Arabia with solitary rosettes of up turned pale green leaves that have green spines that darken with age. Unbranched flower spikes rise about 50cm above the leaves bearing waxy greenish yellow flowers that at first point outwards as buds then lay flat against the spike when open. Plant Aloe castellorum in full sun to light shade. It is a very drought resistant species and is reported to be hardy to -2.5°C. This recently described plant was discovered at fairly high elevations of 1350 meters to 2400 meters in Saudi Arabia and plants have reportedly also been found in neighbouring Yemen.