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 haemanthifolia cannot be confused with another species, although the leaves can be compared with Aloe plicatilis, which is a small tree with a trunk and branches. Aloe haemanthifolia received its species name from the similarity of its leaves to a bulb genus called Haemanthus. It is considered critically rare. Aloe haemanthifolia is endemic to South Africa, found in the mountains of the south-western Cape from Stellenbosch in the south to Ceres in the north. It can be found on mountain peaks and south facing rocky slopes, mostly in crevices of cliffs which also give it the necessary protection against anybody who would like one. The distribution area occurs in a high winter rainfall area. Aloe haemanthifolia is stemless and forms up to twenty rosettes that have a fan-like shape. Leaves are broad and long, strap-shaped, up to 200mm in length and 80mm wide. Leaves are bright green in colour with no blemishes on the leaf surfaces; leaf margins are pinkish in colour. Leaf bases are sheeting and they overlap one another. The orange-red or scarlet flowers are borne on a head-shaped raceme that can be up to 500mm in height. Flowers are tubular and slightly club-shaped. Flowering occurs mainly in October but they occasionally flower in September through to December.