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 striata commonly known as the Coral Aloe is a stemless aloe with blue green leaves. The leaves of this species lack the spines common on most Aloe and instead have a smooth attractive pinkish margin without any teeth. Attractive orange flowers are borne during the winter months on tall flat-topped inflorescences. The subsp. striata is widely distributed over the Eastern & South Western Cape province. Being indigenous to South Africa it grows in stony soils on rocky hillsides in arid areas near the coast and the drier inland Karoo areas. As with most aloes, the plants provide nectar during winter which is an important source of food for the attractive sunbirds and many other nectivorous birds during the cooler period of the year when food is not readily available.