Aloe - not a Polyphylla!
I'd love to own an Aloe Polyphylla, a spiral aloe. Alas - I only grow a straight-up, no-twirly-nonsense one. It sits on my succulent shelf on the patio, sheltered from any winter frosts by the house wall.
My aloe comes from humble beginnings - rescued from a bargain bin at the local nursery, with its leaf tips a little burnt. Perhaps if I rotated the pot one degree every day at sunset it might oblige by growing in a curve...
My Own Non-Spiral Aloe
Anyway, local succulent collectors and stylish patio planters can get hold of the spiral variety now - it's been made popular by the glossy gardening magazines and the home-grown Flower Shows.
Aloe Polyphylla
Google research tells me this aloe occurs naturally in the high Maluti Mountains of Lesotho, Africa. Amazingly (to me) the spirals can be clockwise or anticlockwise. I wonder if each form has an opposing character associated with it. Perhaps it would bring good luck to a gardener to have a specimen of each...
Matching Pairs?
Then a stylish gardener would need matching pairs - the perfect excuse to buy two! Or four... I'm not sure how expensive Aloe Polyphyllas are, though, and I might have to source them from a specialist texture-plants type nursery. Hmm... How about two pot rotations per day?