This plant grows naturally in southern Africa in the Maluti mountains located in Lesotho, where it is the national plant.
How to Propagate Aloe polyphylla “Spiral Aloe”
While you may think that you should be able to propagate Aloe from leaves, this is not the case, and you may find your leaves rotting. Instead, “Spiral Aloe” is propagated from offsets or seeds (difficult).
Offsets
After several years of growth, “Spiral Aloe” will produce an offset. This can be separated from the main plant using a sterile knife.
Wear gloves and use care when removing the offset, as the leaves are sharp. After removal, clean the bottom of the plant, allow it to callous over, and plant in well-draining soil.
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Aloe Polyphylla Care
Size & Growth
Spiral Aloe’s rosettes are made up of five rows of sharp gray-green leaves.
Each of the rows contains 15 – 30 individual leaves, which create a rosette as large as 2′ feet across.
Each Crown Aloe plant may grow to be a foot high and 2′ feet wide.
This cold-hardy, stemless aloe succulent grows in a beautiful spiraling formation and may spiral either to the left or the right.
Individual leaves of the plant are quite sharp and menacing.
South African native people (the Basotho) believe the direction of the spiral indicates the plant’s gender, but the fact is the flowers of the plant are bisexual.
Flowering & Fragrance
Spiral Aloe produces pretty salmon-pink flowers in the springtime. Blooms does not happen right away.
This slow-growing plant takes many years to attain maturity, but once it does, it will produce a long flower spike with an abundant number of red or pink flowers.
When the flowers are pollinated, they produce many seeds.
Unfortunately, in the plants, natural setting, the birds who pollinate these flowers are also endangered.
Whether pollination could be carried out by other species of birds such as hummingbirds is unknown.
Light & Temperature
This is an outdoor succulent and does not do well growing indoors.
It is quite a cold hardy, and adult plants can tolerate temperatures down to 20° degrees Fahrenheit (-6° C).
In its native home of South Africa, Spiral Aloe endures temperatures of 5° degrees Fahrenheit (-15° C) and is often blanketed by snow.
Although this is a cold-hardy succulent, immature plants are not as cold hardy.
If temperatures drop below 30° degrees Fahrenheit (-1° C) in your area, you should keep the younger plants in containers to be brought indoors during the wintertime.
You may eventually be able to transition them into full-time outdoor growth over time.
The plant can do well in a wide variety of hardiness zones up to USDA zone 10a.
These plants like bright sunlight for at least six hours a day. The south-facing location provides the best sunlight.
Harsh, hot full sun will kill them.
Watering & Feeding
Spiral Aloe is unusual in its needs for water and food.
Its root system is shallow, and it is adapted to its native land where the soil is rich, and rain and snowfall are abundant.
For this reason, it’s important to provide very sharply draining soil and water and feed this unusual succulent frequently.
A six month, slow-release fertilizer mixed into the soil at the time of planting will take care of its needs throughout the first growing season.
If you repot the plant annually, this is all you need to do.
For plants having been in the same pot for more than a year, apply a liquid fertilizer a couple of times during the growing season.
Follow the directions on the fertilizer packaging.
There is no need to dilute by half as you would with most succulents because this plant likes frequent watering, so the fertilizer will be washed away over time.
Soil & Transplanting
Plant Spiral Aloe on a mound of well-draining soil and at a slant so water runs through it, the lower leaves will not become waterlogged.
The idea is to mimic the plant’s natural setting.
It usually grows in the wild on a steep slope with loose, sharply draining substrate.
It receives an ample amount of rain and snow, which runs off quickly.
In these two videos, a landscaper performs maintenance and repots a gigantic Spiral Aloe.
Aloe Polyphylla Spiral Pest or Diseases
Crown Aloe may be subject to predation by snout beetles and aphids.
Proper planting, drainage, aeration, and watering will help prevent aphids.
If snout beetles become problematic, water the plant with a systemic insecticide so the pests will consume as they feed on the plant.
Too much moisture and humidity can cause fungal infections and root rot.
Prevention is far better than cure in this instance.
Be sure to provide well-draining soil and plant the aloe in a slanted position on a mound so excess water can runoff.
