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.

This beautiful single-stemmed aloe is easy to grow from seed and it can withstand frost. When young, Aloe littoralis is blue-green with the blue changing to grey as the plant grows to 3-4 meters in height. The relatively large cream coloured spots are mainly on the leaves of young Aloe littoralis plants, disappearing as the plants age. Common names for this amazing Aloe include Mopane Aloe and Windhoek Aloe. Aloe littoralis is not listed as toxic for people and pets. The flowers and leaves are edible and sometimes harvested from the wild as local food or for medicinal uses.