BCSS - Forum

I was wondering if anyone has any experience of growing Aloe ferox? The reason that I ask is that I've had quite a lot of plants in storage in an unheated commercial greenhouse which, for vatious reasons, I have been unable to visit for several weeks. A.ferox is a goner whilst right next to it a Cymbidium orchid was budding up nicely! Are they particularly tender or was it maybe misnamed? It certainly looked like Aloe ferox but I'm no expert.

a photo could help to see if it's an Aloe ferox
This species is resistant to -4-5 °C dry
and growing in a big pot

Thank you Richaud. Based upon what you say I'm guessing that it might not have been Aloe ferox. It was dry but based upon the Cymbidium condition I don't think that it got that cold. That said, it was in a small pot and was only 15/20cm across. Back in May it was very small, 6/7cm but it grew rapidly once I potted it up. No photos sadly.

I buy a large part of my succulent and cacti from a local garden centre as opposed to a specialist nursery to I am open to the fact that some of them will be incorrectly named or have had the labels swapped by bored children (I've watched it happen!). But small plants can be had for just £2 and on the whole I've found that they grow ell once I've bought them and potted them up a size or two.

Mine spent last winter outside under bubble wrap and was fine but I do recall it was a mild winter. This year it is in the shed so a little more shelter but overall I have found them to be quite tough.

A. Ferox grow in all sorts of climates in nature. In the north of the Eastern Cape -5 to -8 and snow is not uncommon. For sure one of our hardiest aloes.

On the farm where I hunt in Queenstown they may dominate the veld. Stunning aloe spesie.

Thanks for the replies! It never saw those sort of temperatures. I'm going to chalk it up as wrongly labelled. Buyer beware and all that.

I had a large ferox that had become too big to get back in the greenhouse and, as above, it stayed out under bubble wrap. Survived 2 winters but then a particularly hard one (2010?) did for it.

There's always the possibility that it was Aloe ferox (commonly sold in garden centres) but had been damaged (slug or snail? mechanical damage to a leaf?) and that gave a point of entry for fungal disease. Sometimes one young plant from a batch of seedlings will succumb to the conditions when loads of its siblings are fine - it can be apparently random.

Once again, thank you for the replies! I'll invest another couple of quid next time I see one and try again.

I've got a few spare seedlings, with habitat number RH3405 - South Africa : Western Cape (Heidelberg 150 m), so hopefully a correct id!
PM me if you are interested. Ed