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 dewetii or De Wet’s Aloe as it is commonly known is one of the larger of the maculate or spotted aloes, with a rosette up to 1 meter or so across. The leaves grow up to 50 cm long and have toothed margins. It also has one of the larger inflorescences, with the larger plants producing 8 – 12 branched stems up to 2 metres tall. The flowers are borne loosely on the flower stems and are coral/salmon in colour with a pronounced ‘bulbous’ base. In or out of flower it is a stunningly beautiful species with the spotted markings on the glossy leaves. It is indigenous to South Africa, originating from Kwazulu-Natal and has a limited range which extends into Southern Swaziland.