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 attractive aloe will enhance contrast in any garden setup with its colourful flowers and astonishing leaves, which are covered with many spots and have a variety of colour forms. Aloe framesii does well when planted on sunny slopes with good drainage, in hot, dry conditions and has minimal water requirements. Aloe framesii is a slow growing, succulent plant, with multibranched stems growing along the ground. This species forms dense groups of up to 20 rosettes. The leaves of these rosettes are long and narrow and are with or without numerous white spots on the undersides and upper sides of the leaves. Leaves vary from grey-green to light green and have reddish brown teeth on the margins. Aloe framesii flowers are orange-red with greenish tips, borne in midwinter, from June to July. The single, sometimes 3-branched, inflorescences are between 700 and 800 mm long. Flowers are tubular with the stamens and style protruding from the mouth. They attract birds to the garden. Fruit capsules ripen in sequence, with the lower, older flowers ripening first, followed by the younger flowers. Ripe capsules split open revealing small winged seeds.