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 marlothii commonly known as Mountain Aloe is a striking, robust, large, single-stemmed aloe up to 6 meters high with a majestic presence. It is undoubtedly one of southern Africa’s most rewarding aloes to grow and adds an interesting angle to aloe culture. The old dried leaves remaining on the stem below the upper living leaves. The leaves are large, broad and succulent, light green to greyish green to blue-green, up to 150 x 25 cm, having a broad base tapering to a sharp point, covered with spines on upper and lower surfaces and maroon- coloured teeth with orange tips along leaf margins. The flowers, which attracts birds to the garden, are held on racemes on a branched candelabra-shaped inflorescence, having up to 30 racemes. Flower colour varies from the typical orange-red to yellow or bright red and may be present from winter to spring. The distinguishing character lies in the slanted inflorescences. They are usually almost horizontal but may be almost vertical in some forms. Aloe marlothii, being indigenous to South Africa, occurs from the North-West Province, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumulanga, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Mozambique to KwaZulu-Natal north of Durban, from sea level to 1 600 m.