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 pratensis, commonly known as Meadow Aloe, is a spiny leaved small clustering stemless aloe from the Eastern Cape and Kwazulu Natal. Each rosette can produce up to four large unbranched flower spikes with simple pale pink to pale pink-red flowers between early winter and mid spring. This beauty does well in the landscape where it is regularly visited by sunbirds but is also well suited to being kept in pots.