Aloe polyphylla
24th October 2015
A striking rosette species with a distinctive spiral arrangement to the leaves that become magnificent with age. It comes from the Drakensberg
mountains in Lesotho. It is a high rainfall region and there is often snow cover in winter.
The habitat gives hope that it might be tolerant of both cold and wet, and in recent years it has become very popular. It takes a long tome to raise a large
geometrically perfect plant and consequently they can be very expensive.
There is a nice group growing on the rock garden at Kew and they seem to survive winter without damage, so if I had more than this single baby, I would certainly try it
outside. Unfortunately this is it, so it is going to stay in a pot until that becomes impractical.