Grow in full coastal sun to part sun or bright shade in a well-drained organically amended soil or potting mix and give regular irrigation in summer months - weekly or every two week irrigation intervals for container grown plants seems to keep them happy. Hardiness is not well tested and though it comes from a relatively high altitude where hard frosts might often occur, it is listed as sensitive to frosts and temperatures much below 30° F in cultivation. Its soft succulent leaves will need some protection from rabbit and other herbivores. This is an interesting and attractive small aloe that should lend itself to a border edge, a raised bed or used as a container plant or even as a hanging basket in mild climate gardens or where it can be winter protected.

Aloe nubigena is considered rare in its habitat where it grows naturally with mosses lichens and grasses in rocky grasslands and quartzitic sandstone cliffs in the mist belt from 5,000 to 7,000 feet on the north-eastern Drakensberg escarpment in Mpumalanga, South Africa, often found growing on the shader south or east facing slopes. In this habitat there is summer rainfall, some seepage from above and mist that condenses as a fine drizzle to keep plants moist through the warmer times of the year. The specific epithet comes from the Latin words 'nubes' meaning clouds and 'genus' meaning "birth" in reference this plants "cloud-born" higher elevation natural habitat. Such cliff dwelling plants are sometimes called succulent cremnophytes or cremnads from the Greek word 'cremnos' meaning "cliff" and 'phuto' or 'phyto' meaning a "plant".

This species is included in the grass aloe group in Aloes: The Definitive Guide and in Grass Aloes in the South African Veld and it closely related to the more commonly cultivated Aloe thompsoniae, which comes from a similar elevation in the Limpopo province of South Africa, but is a smaller plant with shorter leaves all held distichous on shorter stems and with more open inflorescences. In Grass Aloes in the South African Veld Aloe nubigena is noted as having one of the longest flowering periods of all the South African grass aloes, from November (equivalent to our May) to late March or April (equivalent to our October) and in our mild coastal climate, it seems to bloom well into winter. The picture on this page was taken on January 1, 2021 and it has also been photographed here in bloom in late spring, summer and fall. We received this interesting species from the Institute for Aloe Studies in 2009 (as IAS 09-50). We have nice specimen container plants in the nursery that we are working to divide in order to begin selling this very nice plant someday in the future. 

This information about Aloe nubigena displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.