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 dyeri commonly known as Dyer’s Aloe is a solitary stemless aloe. It is one of the largest of the spotted aloe group that forms large rosettes 1.2 to 1.5 meters wide with deeply channelled 60cm long dark yellowish green leaves that have light coloured short linear dashes on the upper and lower surfaces. Aloe dyeri is a shade loving aloe in its natural habitat but will grow nicely in full sun and then leaves take on a reddish brown hue. In autumn appear the tall stalks (to 1.8 meters) that branch in the top third bearing up to 15 branches of salmon-pink tubular 2.5cm flowers that are green tipped and erect in bud and develop an interesting swollen base as the flowers open, dangling downwards. Plant in full sun or shade in a well-drained soil and watered occasionally. It is hardy and easily tolerates temperatures down to -4°C. This aloe comes from fairly high elevations (900 to 1500 meters) in Mpumalanga and was named to honour Sir William Thiselton-Dyer of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.