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 maculata previously known as Aloe saponaria and commonly known as Soap Aloe is a neat and very rewarding winter flowering succulent. It has showy flowers in winter and is ideal for boarder planting in a garden. This is a very hardy medium sized aloe. It grows in a variety of habitats, including grassland, thicket and rocky outcrops, and is one of the most widely distributed of the spotted or maculate aloes. Being indigenous to South Africa it occurs from the Cape Peninsula through the Western and Eastern Cape, into the eastern Free State and Lesotho, through KwaZulu-Natal to Mpumalanga and Swaziland. In a dry sunny climate the leaves of Aloe maculata are short and wide. Plants from a wetter climate, especially when planted in shade, has narrow long leaves. The leaves are always spotted with sharp brown teeth.