Everywhere you go along the southern edges of the Karoo, a slow-blooming colour splash straddles the Western Cape and Eastern Cape, brightening every north-facing hillside with colonies of ferocious ...

In Athol Fugard’s 1978 play, A Lesson From Aloes, the aloe is used allegorically as a tool for trying to establish a sense of place in a country with so much racial conflict. In isiXhosa, Aloe ferox ...

Walnut Creek’s Ruth Bancroft is a national authority on drought-resistant gardening. Twice a month she and her staff share their knowledge with readers. Q I was told that there was a plant of Aloe ...

The world of aloes is a large and complex one, with whole books on the subject. It is becoming more common to see a variety of attractive species populating nurseries, because aloes are tough and ...

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni will likely begin his budget address by giving an update on health of his little aloe ferox plant, which has become a surrogate of sorts for the state of SA's economy.

Ferox is Latin for "ferocious," so when a plant’s specific (species) name is "ferox," you can be certain it’s armed with spines or thorns — which doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be cultivated. After all, ...