Hilltop Gardens

Founded in 1939 by Lee and Sherman Ewald, Hilltop Gardens, among the first commercial aloe vera farms in the U.S., started on 100 acres north of La Villa. The Ewalds built their farmhouse atop a small knoll and named the property Hilltop Gardens for its rolling topography. Lee Ewald recognized the medical properties of aloe vera and pioneered its commercial production in the Rio Grande Valley. Hilltop Gardens was incorporated in 1959 and became part of the Global Health industry.

lee developed cosmetics using aloe vera gel with the help of her two daughters. She sold this under the name phyllis ann lee sales, incorporated in 1962. Hilltop Gardens is believed to be the first business using aloe vera gel as an ingredient in cosmetics. The Ewald family sold Hilltop Gardens in 1976 to R.C. Benson who moved from Houston to grow aloe vera. By 1981, Benson was growing over 200,000 aloe plants on the property. In 1988, an Econet Company called Aloecorp purchased Hilltop Gardens. It became a part of a corporation of 13 companies named Econet, one of the world’s largest and most technologically advanced producers of aloe vera.

The farm operation has become organic and serves the Econet and the wider farming community by developing procedures for organic farming. In 2012, Hilltop Gardens opened to the general public. Hilltop Gardens also contracted a grower in South Africa, where aloe vera originates from, to supply over 200 species of aloe which are now growing on the farm. Hilltop Gardens represents the largest collection of species of aloe in the United States.