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Aloe vanbalenii (Van Balen's Aloe) - This aloe grows as a large stemless rosette forming a wide low clump to 1-2 feet tall by 3 feet wide. It has long gracefully twisted deeply-channeled yellow-green leaves with rusty red edges - the entire leaf can be red if grown in full sun and kept dry in winter but will be bright green in the shade. The leaves have a characteristic cinnamon or musky smell when bruised or damaged. The yellow to orange-yellow flowers rise up on unbranched spikes in late winter to early spring.
Plant in full sun to light shade and irrigate regularly spring through summer. This plant is a summer grower and while it adapts to winter rainfall the foliage is much showier if kept drier in the winter - grow under eaves or in small well-draining pots. Cold hardy to 24° F - survived undamaged to 25° F in the January 2007 cold spell we had down to this temperature on 3 consecutive nights and is listed on Brian Kemble's List of Hardy Aloes as hardy to 24° F at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek.
Aloe vanbalenii is native to KwaZulu-Natal and southeastern Mpumalanga in South Africa. The specific epithet honors J.C. van Balen, the former Director of the Park Department in Johannesburg, SA, who first collected this species. Because of its ground hugging often twisting leaves this plant also has the alternate common name Crawling Octopus. We have grown this wonderful aloe ever since receiving it from Aloe grower John Goetz of San Luis Obispo in 2004.
The information displayed on this page about Aloe vanbalenii is based on the research we conducted about it in our nursery horticultural library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include some of our own observations made about this plant as it grows in the nursery gardens and other gardens that we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we have received from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information that will aid others to better grow it.
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