how long ago was the cold event??

i think it is cold damage ...

lets see other plants in the room with damage from the same event to compare ...

the length of time it takes.. to show the damage.. is usually indicative of how severe the damage is.. meaning.. if its showing in a few days.. its pretty bad ...

many .. if not most plants.. with no insult to the root mass ... presuming the pot didnt freeze .. can easily recover form cold events... but with very slow growing plants.. it will seem to take forever.. and might be worthwhile to just get rid of a common injured plant.. just so it doesnt bum you out every day looking at it ...it would be worth a couple pounds just to get it out of mind ...

ken

-5 C ia pretty cold. It would be even worse if plant was wet (potting medium...) It also depends on how long & what is the lowest temp for the plant. Google min temps for any plant you have been wondering about. If frost damage, hope the stem is not affected. I would be happier if tips were damaged...they would just dry up. BUT it is difficult to know from the photo.

I'm no expert, just an amateur who grows several kinds of these South African plants. Your appears to be either Aloe ferox or Aloe merlothii. In my garden here in the Sonoran Desert that straddles the US/Mexican border, my several aloes are planted in the ground, so I don't have the option of moving them indoors when temperatures drop below freezing. (Yes, we do get frosts several times each winter; and routine June days of 110). If winter dawn temperatures drop below 29 F (about -1.6 C), I cover my aloes with cloths raised on stakes so the fabric doesn't touch the leaves.

As with all succulents, if the plant is too plumped with water when frost comes, the plant is more vulnerable to damage as cells freeze and rupture. I water mine with a frequency based on temperatures, viz.: 90+ weekly; 80s alternate weeks; 70s every three weeks; 60 or below monthly or less.

These tidy and easy-to-remember Farenheit numbers translate to Celcius at about 32.2+ weekly; 26.6+ alternate weeks; 21+ every three weeks; 15.5 monthly or less.

If in doubt -- as when temperatures are variable, or there has been a lot of rain -- skip watering for a week.

Getting to your question: I think the small grey ovoid thumb-print-sized spots are likely frost damage, which may turn blackish as they rot. Be very restrained with watering, to minimize expansion of rot spots.

The bands of irregular green will probably even out. The tannish band across the base of that one leaf looks like it is preparing to die. Let it become brittle and rigid enough to snap off. From time to time, bend it gently; if it does not snap, leave it alone. If it will not snap off, do not cut if off, as that would expose living interior flesh to bacteria that will promote rot.

Keep an eye on the spots; if they stay the same size, even if they blacken, the rest of the leaf should be okay. Eventually the leaf will age out as new ones grow out from the center, and when the old leaf becomes russet and brittle you can snap it off.

In your photo, the soil looks both heavy and wet, and the pot plastic. If you can find a sack of cactus soil, re-pot the aloe in an unglazed terracotta pot, and raise the pot on clay feet or a bed of pebbles. Raising the pot allows the soil to drain rapidly when you water it, and the terracotta pot allows the soil to breath.

These two types of aloe grow in the African wild in open grasslands, which is to say they can take as much sun as you can give them (other aloes prefer bright dappled shade).

As another writer has suggested, you can always start with a new plant. If you pursue that, wait till weather warms a bit, and start out with the right soil and pot and watering schedule.

Good luck with this, as everyone benefits from a bit of green in their lives. And happy New Year.

The OP will be growing these indoors in London. -5 would have been the outside temperature and rain would not be an issue. However, we did have ice on the inside of a single glazed window in an unheated room once during that cold week, so very likely George’s plant did get very cold.