In Love With Aloes

A thirsty rose garden was replaced with a glorious collection of these waterwise indigenous beauties.

- Beatrice Moore-Nothnagel

At first, Femma Hackland wasn’t a fan of aloes as orange isn’t exactly her favourite colour… And the thought of a garden with only aloes in it really didn’t appeal to her. Little did she know that aloes come in all shapes and sizes – and colours!

Her husband Rick has been living on his family farm east of Pietermaritzburg his entire life and when he and Femma got married in 1995, they slowly started replacing the many blue gums with lawn, fever trees, cabbage trees (Cussonia spicata), shrubs and later beds of roses. “I ended up with about 800 roses,” says Femma. “I loved them but we had such trouble with spotted cucumber beetles that arrived in swarms and shredded every rosebud in sight. We had to spray constantly. The roses also needed a lot of water. It was just too much.”

As Rick has always loved aloes, in July 2012 Femma decided to remove some of the roses and replace them with a few of these succulents. It was the start of a brand-new passion and her love for aloes has since grown exponentially. “I didn’t realise that they come in so many different colours,” says Femma. “And they put on an unbelievable display when they all flower at the same time.”

Versatile plants

Once they had decided where to place the aloes – using rocks from the surrounding cane fields as indicators – Femma and Rick visited Rocky Wonder Aloe Nursery in Ashburton and Gwahumbe Nursery in Eston to purchase their first plants.