Aloe Vera
Aloe barbadensis miller
Thick, gel-filled leaves in a tight rosette — kept dry and warm it lasts for years, kept damp and cold it turns to mush.
- Type
- Shrub · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Silver and gray
- Sunlight
- Bright indirect light, with some direct sun indoors tolerated.
- Watering
- Water it deeply, then let it dry out completely.
- Feeding
- One or two light feeds across the growing season.
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- May
- Pruning
- Take off the dead outer leaves and any spent flower stalk.
- Mar–May Spring Growth
- May–Oct Flowering
- Oct–Nov Growing
- Nov–Dec Dormancy
- Jan–Mar Dormancy
- Plant spacing
- 15.7 in
- In-row spacing
- 15.7 in
- Between rows
- 19.7 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- Shallow, wide and fine
- Working depth
- 4–12 in
- Can reach
- 18 in down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 24 in–3.5 ft across, about 1.5–2.5× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 6 in of soil
Roots run out flat and near the surface to catch light rain before it drains past, and they rot in ground that stays wet. Width of pot and sharpness of drainage matter to it; depth of pot hardly does.
The habit is Aloe Vera’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
- Cats and dogs
- Recorded toxic
Recorded as toxic to cats and dogs by ASPCA.
The entry title is simply Aloe, and its Latin is Aloe vera where we hold Aloe barbadensis miller. Synonyms for the same plant.
- Root & crown rot Root rot from overwatering, the commonest way to lose one
- Aloe mites, which raise gall-like growths on the leaves
- Soft, mushy leaves after cold damage
Silver and gray-leaved shrubs, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com