Bold and Beautiful Yuccas for the Southern Plains

Make a statement with the striking, spiked foliage and creamy blooms of these native perennials

We are fortunate here in the Southern Plains to have quite a few aboriginal yucca metal money ( Yuccaspp . and cvs . , Zones 5–10 ) that prosper in our climate . Many of them are large , strike plant that serve as fantabulous focal points in the garden , while smaller yuccas that spring up near the solid ground , such as twirl - leaf yucca ( Y. genus Rupicola , Zones 7–11 ) and wan - leaf yucca ( Y. pallida , Zones 7–9 ) , are more demure . Many folks are familiar with the larger , treelike yuccas known by the common name “ Spanish sticker . ” This name , along with many others , is apply to several different species , each one distinct in aspect and habit , so I find it worthwhile to know the yuccas by their botanical names . All of the yuccas I have profile here are drouth kind and moderately cold hardy . They also boom in full Lord’s Day ( unless otherwise noted ) and are sluttish to grow — not to mention beautiful .

Beaked yucca

Also known as : Thompson ’s yucca , soyate , palmita

Y. thompsoniana(syn . Y. rostrata ) , Zones 5–10

Beaked yucca is , in my popular opinion , the most beautiful of the yucca . This is a bold affirmation , but beaked yucca is a bold plant . It grows slowly and adopts a treelike appearance with a stocky trunk that is top with a crowing pompom lump of leaves . It sometimes branches near the top but is often find unbranched . Each rounded read/write head of parting consists of one C of tough , blue - gray-haired leaves that originate up to 2 fundament long . These pointed leaves , which are about half an inch widely , are less rigid than those of many other yucca plants , so this yucca is more or less more absolvitory in the garden . While many yuccas take on a rather unkempt appearance , with shaggy-coated brown leaves flow down underneath , beaked yucca tends to stay tidier . It makes a outstanding focal point , and I urge it in localisation where you require to make a program line . Make certain you give it enough way , because it can give 6 to 14 understructure tall with a 6 - foot spread .

Giant dagger

Also bang as : Spanish dagger , Faxon ’s yucca , West Texas tree yucca , giant blanched yucca , Eve ’s needle

Yucca faxoniana , Zones 5–10

Giant dagger is another treelike yucca that tends to be smaller than beaked yucca , reach heights of about 10 fundament . Some individual plants remain middling unretentive and give the appearance of a musket ball of bayonet - same folio on the ground . The leaves are distinctive in that they are very wide-eyed and unwavering , from 2 to 4 feet long and over an inch wide . Unlike the leave of beak yucca , the sloshed , spiked leaf of this species are very rigid , so choose its location cautiously . It is a very striking and beautiful specimen , with a gorgeous 2 - pes - long bloom stalking covered in creamy snowy blossom in the outflow . This is another sheer - statement plant life that can look specially attractive when surrounded by small xeric works .

Don Quixote’s lance

Also known as : Spanish dagger , Spanish bayonet , palma pita , palma de datil

Yucca treculeana , Zones 7–10

Like the two previous yuccas , this species also takes on a arborescent form and reaches height of 10 to 15 feet . The leave of absence , which are thick and stiff , are average in width and between the size of beak yucca ’s and giant dagger ’s leave of absence . Don Quixote ’s lance is not as tidy as peck yucca , tending to continue its sure-enough brown leaves , which can give it a rough , shaggy appearance . That does n’t make it unattractive , however . This furrowed coming into court is softened by its blooms , which are tumid , round , white-hot or purplish flowers that drop from a long flower stalk above the leafage . This yucca makes an fantabulous dialect shrub or security measure hedge .

Twist-leaf yucca

Also cognise as : Spanish dagger , Texas yucca

Yucca rupicola , Zones 7–10

Do n’t have the room ( or the fortitude ) for one of the turgid yucca coinage in your garden ? Twist - leaf yucca is under 2 feet tall and conduct more like a small succulent than a big shrub or tree . This more understated appendage of the yucca genus begin out with unbent , greenish - blue farewell that become more twisted as the plant ages . The flower stalking is impressively marvelous for such a small-scale plant , on a regular basis contact heights of 4 to 5 feet and exceed with the large , white , bell - shaped prime typical of yucca . It blooms in late spring ( April to June ) and attracts butterflies , even help as the larval host for the yucca giant - sea captain ( Megathymus yuccae ) . Unlike the other yucca refer here , this metal money does just ticket in fond shade . I have seen it do finely in full nicety as well , although it turn more tardily and does not normally bloom in that lawsuit .

— Karen Beaty is a horticulturalist at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin , Texas .

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Beaked yucca blooms in front of Don Quixote’s lance in this impressive border planting.Photo: Karen Beaty

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