Aloe cooperi, from Curtis's Botanical Magazine (volume XV of the new series) at Cactus and Succulent Digital Library

Aloe cooperi is a wonderful garden plant. I have grown it in Texas in USDA climate zone 9. When the weather got cold, after a few hard frosts, the plant would lose some of its leaves. Yes, it is a deciduous Aloe! Generally, grass aloes grow in warm weather and are dormant in winter; thus, they prefer to be dry in winter, but A. cooperi happily tolerated winter rain in Texas (I did grow the plants in fast-draining soil). Unlike some other grass aloes, A. cooperi did not lose all of its leaves in winter, even when temperatures dropped to 22 F. It is probably hard to 15 F or even 10 F.

A. cooperi flowered regularly for me in the spring and early summer, and it was carefree. I did fertilize it during the spring/summer growing season. There are other, smaller grass aloes. I have seldom found them for sale, but they can be purchased though the mail from Annies Annuals. I have grown a few of the grass aloes from seeds, and A. cooperi was particularly easy as succulent plants go. A. ecklonis is another grass aloe that was easy from seed.

You can find out more about grass aloes at Penroc Seeds or in the book “Grass Aloes in the South African veld” (Charles Craib, 2005, Umdau Press).  There are a a number of grass aloe species, perhaps 20 or  more. They mostly come from high-altitude areas of South Africa where they experience winter frosts. Most or all are deciduous. The grass aloes have thin grass-like leaves (not as thick or succulent as other aloes), hence their common name. Grass aloes are generally smaller than other aloes, making them ideal for container cultivation.

Posted by: Joe Shaw shawjoej@gmail.com