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 tomentosa is a rare species that forms a single rosette to 60cm tall by 1.2m wide with pale green leaves. In late summer appears the tall branched inflorescence bearing unique chartreuse flowers covered in thick wool. Plant in full sun to light shade and irrigate infrequently – this is a winter dormant aloe but seems to tolerate winter rainfall if planted in a well-drained soil. This species hails from the warmer and more tropical Arabian Peninsula’s mountainous areas of Wadi Dahr, Yemen.