- Try Aloe arborescens if you have a lot of space to fill. This plant grows to a height and spread of 10 to 15 feet and resembles a small tree, with trunks and branches supporting fiery, orange-red blooms. Aloe ferox, also called bitter aloe, get to be 5 to 6 feet tall and wide, with broad rosettes of long, spiny leaves. Aloe plicatilis, or fan aloe, looks more like a shrub-sized palm tree with multiple trunks holding up fan-shaped rosettes.
- Medium-sized, aloes have a clumping habit and have no stems or trunks. Plant aloe brevifolia for 3-foot-wide, gray-green rosettes of toothy leaves. Try Aloe microstigma if you prefer blue-green, white-spotted foliage of about the same height and spread. Aloe hereroensis has leaves 18 inches wide and produces 2-foot, multi-branched flower spikes of orange flowers, while Aloe buhrii offers dramatic, densely blooming yellow flowers.
- Plant miniature aloes in groups where they have excellent drainage, because these little aloes have a tendency to rot easily. Aloe humilis, or spider aloe, grows only to a height and spread of 5 to 12 inches, with compact rosettes of gray-green. Gold-tooth aloe, named for its yellow-spined leaves, forms 12-inch rosettes about 18 inches tall. Aloe polyphylla has an interesting, spiral-shaped rosette about 2 feet wide, and Aloe variegata is about 12 inches tall and wide, with mottled gray-white leaves. Try aloe brevifolia for color contrast, with its 10-inch rosettes of bluish green with white spines.
- Aloe vera is renowned for its medicinal properties, used by many cultures over centuries. The thick, viscous sap from a broken leaf can be used to soothe burns, insect bites and blisters. It is a low-growing aloe, forming clumps of rosettes with uniformly green, fleshy leaves, 8 to 10 inches long, speckled with gray, with small prickles along the edges. In hot, desert climates, outdoor aloe vera produces flower spikes 2 to 3 feet tall, with yellow blossoms in spring.
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