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 chortolirioides is a South African indigenous succulent grass aloe which occurs naturally in parts of Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. Plants form dense tufts through branching. The stems are slightly woody and the leaves are narrow, erect and grass-like. They are armed with small teeth along the leaf margins. From late winter to early spring it bears red flowers which are carried on simple rounded racemes. Aloe chortolirioides have a tendency to survive veld fires.