growing the quiver tree Aloe dichotoma

Aloe dichotoma with green grass in a garden.  This garden is in Windhoek which is very near to the natural habitat of this aloe with a lot of sun and the dry climate makes it so much easier, so that it can be said,   this tree aloe "just grows" here.  However, a few important clues can be seen; the grass is watered only in the top layer of the soil the roots of the Quiver Tree is still dry; it is growing on the slope of a hill which will have plenty stones beneath the top layer of soil for drainage;  the tree is open to air movement.

This aloe will grow in Cape town where the rainfall is much higher than in the habitat, but it does not grow well in the Klein Karoo where the rainfall compares very well with the natural rainfall in the habitat of this aloe.  In Cape Town the sun will not shine in winter for days, which should be very bad for this aloe, but the Quiver Tree   can survive this treatment, provided it is growing in Cape Town on the sandstone and not in the low lying suburbs.

The secret is it needs very well drainage in the soil.   Make a deep hole and fill it with stones of all sizes and if possible include some dolomite stones, coarse sand and a small quantity of old manure.   Plant the tree on top of this so that the tree trunk is higher than ground level. Do not water. That is it!  Not entirely - Keep a look out for ants.  If they carry plant lice into the rosettes, the aloe will rot.  Nothing is visible until it is too late.

This garden is in a very dry climate in Namaqualand. Hot and no rain in the summer and cold freezing winter nights.   It proves that a garden can be beautiful with a minimum of work and water if the plants fit the climate.   The tree on the right is a hybrid between Aloe dichotoma and Aloe ramosissima. It grows much easier and faster than either of the two species. The species as well as the hybrid grows easy from seeds, for more information see our web site

The aloe in bloom between the two trees is Aloe marlothii from Gauteng, Northern Province and KwaZulu-Natal including areas further north.  It grows very happy here in this garden, but Aloe dichotoma will have a tough time to grow in those provinces due to too much rain.  In some areas the rain is not entirely too much if the drainage was better.

Aloe ramosissima is the Maiden Quiver Tree.  It looks like Aloe dichotoma without a trunk.  This aloe branch very young at which stage it looks like a bonsai Quiver Tree. It is very  special from a young age and do well in pots where it can grow out of the rain. We found that  Aloe ramosissima may be more sensitive to being wet in summer than Aloe dichotoma as  I killed our previous Aloe ramosissima when I water it in summer. However do  not take that as a fact as I would not dare to water the Aloe dichotoma to test the difference.  Fact is do not water, rainfall is more than enough for these aloes.  The plant on the photo below is at least five years old and it is little over 50 cm high and more than that in diameter. It grows fine in our garden without any water in summer.  Our winter rainfall is much higher than in the habitat of this aloe, but it is doing fine - (we will have to remove the Aloe glauca soon. )

Aloe dichotoma is known as the quiver tree after the fact that the San people used the trunk to make a quiver to carry their arrows.