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 pienaarii was formally described by Pole Evans in 1915. In 1950 it was sunk into Aloe cryptopoda but it has been upheld in our neighbouring countries and is now resurrected in South Africa. It is solitary, or suckering to form small groups of plants. Normally they are acaulescent or they have a very short stem. The leaves are held in a compact rosette and are dark greyish-green. The tips are tinged reddish in dry conditions. The leaves are slightly rough on the surface and without spots. Being indigenous to South Africa it is also found in Mozambique, Botswana, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and southern Tanzania on the Mozambique border. It grows mainly on very thin soil in rocky slopes, usually steep and exposed with little or no grass. It bears striking bird attracting flowers.