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 swynnertonii, previously known as Aloe chimanimaniensis and Aloe melsetterensis and commonly known as Vumba Aloe, is a South African indigenous succulent. It is also found in Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi. It is a stemless plant with narrow dark green leaves that has many white spots and toothed margins. From autumn to winter it bears a branched head-shaped inflorescence of red flowers. The inflorescence can grow up to 2 meters tall. Aloe swynnertonii makes an excellent garden specimen. It will attract bees, butterflies and birds to the garden. It is also drought-tolerant and suitable for xeriscaping.