Aloe arborescen sWinter-blooming tree aloeSucculent with...

Aloe arborescen s

Winter-blooming tree aloe

Succulent with serrated leaves.

For most of the year, aloes are smug, fiercely independent plants. Stoutly drought-resistant, they don’t need us very much, and if we leave them alone, they multiply with quiet persistence until one day there is an enormous clump of aloes where once there was a modest little succulent.

In the winter months in Southern California, aloes burst out of their usual gray-green background or border roles by sending up long spikes of yellow, orange or red flowers. The racemes are candle-shaped and are borne upright on snaky stems, and there is no ignoring them; they radiate brash color in the otherwise drab winter landscape. Hummingbirds can’t resist them either.

Aloes are native to South Africa, but they have been welcomed to Southern California gardens for decades, because they are virtually care-free. Most aloes have serrated teeth banding each leaf; only the most determined optimist would ever try weeding under or around an aloe without sturdy gloves. Most aloes available in nurseries will do well in pots if they have good drainage and not too much water.

There are hundreds of aloes, but relatively few are available commercially. Aloe arborescens, the tree aloe, is the first to bloom. Older tree aloe clumps can tower to 15 feet or more, often spreading 6 to 8 feet wide; Aloe barbadensis, the familiar aloe vera, has a rosy cast to the underside of its leaves, and the sap from cut leaves is said to soothe burns and bites; in parts of the Caribbean, aloe vera is a major crop for the cosmetics industry.

The prettiest aloes are those with variegated leaves: saponaria, distans and variegata. Some are splotchy, others striped, but they add a little extra interest to the thorny patch when they are not blazing away in full flower.

Several nurseries throughout Southern California stock a selection of aloes: Green Thumb/Green Arrow Stores (from Ventura through the San Fernando Valley); Armstrong Garden Centers, Glendale and Sherman Oaks; La Sumida Nursery, Santa Barbara; Neil’s Nursery, Palm Springs; Nurseryland Garden Centers, San Diego County; Frank’s Nurseries and Flowers, Santa Monica, and Rogers Gardens, Newport Beach.