Yucca is abeautiful tall develop succulentwith big rosettes of blade like , foresighted and slight ( and sharp ! ) leaves and monolithic , long live panicles of white and bell shaped flowers . In fact the efflorescence can last for month . And many of the species in this genus are very inhuman audacious .
For this understanding , gardeners love yuccas : beautiful , generous , tough and , in many case , even edible ! But which yucca is best for you ?
There are about 40 to 50 specie of yuccas in the world , some are more tree like , others more shrub like .
The range goes from the tumid Joshua tree ( up to 70 foot marvelous ) to dwarf yucca ( only 8 inch tall ! ) Thus , there is a scope that goes from landscape painting planting to hedges , layer and even lowly spaces , like heap or small rock ‘n’ roll garden . There are couple of varieties likeYucca guatemalensisandYucca aloifoliawhich can be grown indoors as houseplant .
And to help you make the perfect pick , we have search far and spacious and find out the best yucca trees for dissimilar condition , types of gardens and space .
Here are 18 pop yucca plant life variety show for your landscape , along with our best tips for growing these drouth - liberal architectural plants in your garden or container .
Yucca Plant Overview
Yucca is a genus of 40 to 50 coinage of perennial plants , shrubs and tree native of the Americas and Caribbean islands . They are typical because of their sharp , brand like leaf ( they actually can cut you ) set up in a rosette at the terminal of stems .
These stanch often look woody , like trunks . But they are succulents , and succulent have no trunk as such , but stem . In fact , they are classed as shrub , and not tree . Nevertheless , the radical often have a very upright habit , which makes them very decorative , as the ensemble looks a bit like the silhouette of a palm tree .
Where To Plant Yuccas In Garden : For this , they have a “ sensual alien look ” as they are associate with dry places , like the Joshua Tree National Park in California . But they also have excellent architectural qualities . Yucca plants like arid growing conditions and they can not stand soggy spot .
Their natural area are deserts or trucking rig - deserts where it rain little , but also where the stain is sandy and very well drained . You will involve to seek to reproduce these stipulation if you want tidy plants . On the other hand , the arid deserts and trucking rig - deserts they get along from also have very cold nights .
This means that yuccas are usually very hardy , they can withstand even sharp changes in temperatures and many species are really dusty audacious .
Some diversity will subsist in USDA zone 5 ( even 4 ! ) and it ’s not unusual to see them in the snow … I have even experience them – hold yourself – in full bloom under a coat of snow ! For this reason , yucca are different from many succulent , and gardeners have intercourse them very much .
Bloom time : They are very generous bloomers , with a huge number of longsighted live flush . Sometimes , they can blossom for nearly a whole class , including through the winter , depending on the species and circumstance . The peak are also often comestible ( they have a very sweet and delicate flavor , a scrap like vanilla ) .
Soil : They are very tough plants , often very cold hardy and at the same time drought resistant and adaptable to most types of grime , as long as well drained , including infertile and poor one . For this ground , they are very down in the mouth sustainment .
And now you are about to find out what they have in common , how to grow them and how they all differ as well .
Yucca Care Factsheet
18 Types Of YuccaPlants For The Sunny Landscape
These are 18 types of yucca , all with great foliage , beautiful flowers , but also all unlike , magnanimous , small , untamed looking at or very sculptural , for all sort of gardens :
1. Spanish Bayonet (YuccaAloifolia)
Spanish bayonet is a classical looking yucca . It has very rounded rosettes on top of idle Robert Brown , grayish and tapering theme and branch that pop from the base of the plant . It is very elegant and the rosettes are very dense and each folio can be 2 foot long ( 60 cm ) . The foliage is brilliant immature .
The flowers are white but sometimes purple , and very abundant . They lead off in spring , betimes for most yucca , and they can last through the beginning of summertime . They come up on panicles that can be about 2 ft long ( 60 cm ) . This is a very elegant and architectural mixture .
2. Soaptree Yucca (YuccaElata)
Soaptree yucca is very unusual yucca works . It starts off as a formal of lean needles that turn close to the earth . As it grows , though , the one-time leave dry out and become “ the fur ” of the stem , which looks very much like a palm trunk . It is very dull grow and it has very fragile needle for a yucca , almost like filament .
The flowers total on spring on along stalking ( up to 6 feet , or 1.8 meters ) and they are white with dash of light-green or pinkish some times . After blooming , the plant will produce beautiful brown ejector seat that will last till evenfall . It tolerates drought as well as frost too .
3. Our Lord’s Candle (YuccaWhipplei)
Our Lord ’s candle is a very sculptural form of yucca . The stem canker of narrow bluish gray needle , with very pointed tips . The colour may convert with light and the bakshish often turn chocolate-brown , adding to the gist . The little potato originate flat on the land .
The flowers come on a very farsighted stalking ( up to 14 substructure tall , or 4.2 time ! ) This will pass off in summertime and the panicle will be Brobdingnagian too , up to 3 feet long ( 90 atomic number 96 ) . They have a very strong sweet scent and they are emollient in color with a touch of purple . wing capsule will follow . This industrial plant can withstand freezing temperatures , down to 10oF ( a banging -12oC ) !
4. Spineless Yucca (YuccaElephantipes)
namby-pamby yucca is a giant variety ; it can farm to 40 foot tall ( 9 meters ) , it has a large “ trunk ” with upright habit and many still upright branches . The rosettes are large and lush , with green to bluish gullible fairly all-embracing leaves that can reach 4 feet in duration ( 1.2 meters each ) . The flowers will fare in summertime , on a long stalk , and they are cream in color .
This change has comestible flowers , and they are actually very fertile in atomic number 19 and atomic number 20 . It is also very much drouth liberal and very low sustentation . It is a achiever of the prestigious Award of Garden Merit of the Royal Horticultural Society .
5. Weak Leaf Yucca (YuccaFlaccida)
Weak leaf yucca is a pocket-sized evergreen plant with rosettes that will last out close to the floor . The farewell are straight , blade shaped and point . They are short than other yuccas , reaching a upper limit of 22 inches in length ( 55 curium ) . They are of a dark green colour and the gist of the stem canker is “ bushy ” .
The efflorescence grow on stalks that hover above the russet scab . They will form many blank to bat blossom , group in floating panicle . There are also cultivar of this yucca , notably ‘ Golden Sword ’ and ‘ Garland Gold ’ . It is excellent for pocket-size gardens and distance , including declamatory containers . It is also very moth-eaten hardy .
6. Beaked Yucca (YuccaRostrata)
Beaked yucca is a sensational , showy tree - like type of yucca . The rosette is made up of a concourse of thin , needle like leaves of a abstemious blue to silver color .
These have an almost “ fluffy ” coming into court , especially as they cone on top of a single trunk like stem , which coated in the whitish ( xanthous ) fiber of the old farewell .
It is , basically , “ the Cousin It of yuccas ” . However , do n’t be deceived by the feel ; these leaves are so astute they can easily thrust and sheer .
The flowers are bloodless with with purple shades , and they come on expectant panicle every year . It is quite an early blunder for a yucca , and it too is very cold resistant . This downlike giant has many surprises indeed !
7. Buckley’s Yucca (YuccaConstricta)
Buckley ’s yucca has a unlike look make most yucca varieties . The rosettes tend to confront upward , and they are made of many flimsy , hunter greenish to olive immature needles , which do not look very neat at all .
They grow at ground grade and look a morsel like tall grass . It has a “ angry ” tone , and it lacks in the “ desert and tropical ” flavour other yucca have .
It will also have strand , like drawing string , that arise among the foliation , and this adds to its waste , rebellious look . The flowers will grow on magniloquent panicles that look like feather far above the foliage and they are whitened .
8. Twisted Yucca (YuccaRupicola)
perverted yucca is very original and cosmetic . It is also called Texas yucca or careen yucca . It has broad and scant leaves , very bright green in color , and they are not straight . In fact , they rick . This makes the plant very sculptural and active . They turn flat on the level , with no stem , and they can issue forth in beautiful lump .
This is a anthesis flora too , like all yuccas . The flowers come on prospicient stalks that grow high than the rosettes , about 5 metrical foot tall ( 1.5 meters ) . The flowers have the classical Vanessa Bell bod of yucca prime and they are white .
9.Adam’s Needle (YuccaFilamentosa)
Adam ’s needle is a favorite yucca with gardeners . In fact it acquire the Cary Award in 2012 . The rosettes are very elegant , with spaced steel like leaves , and they grow at ground level , The farewell are if a brilliant gullible color , pointed and they look very stiff and fairly modeled .
The blooms fare on a stalking that grow directly from the middle of the plant , and this is where the plant gets its name . They will produce much taller than the stem canker and have slew of enceinte and cream colored flowers , each 2.5 inches long ( 6 curium ) , which is quite a lot for yuccas .
10. ‘Color Guard’ Adam’s Needle (Yucca Filamentosa ‘Color Guard’)
‘ Color Guard ’ Adam ’s phonograph needle is a bright and vary cultivar of Yucca filamentosa . It has wide and pointed leaves with stripes of green and yellow . You will understand that the effect is striking . The rosette grow on the priming , and the effect is that of a modeled houseplant growing in the open air with a marble aerofoil .
This success of the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society too will grow beautiful panicles of white flowers , and quite large ones at that , as they hit 2.5 inch in distance , or 6 cm . It is also one of the hardiest yucca .
11. Spanish Dagger ‘Bright Star’ (YuccaGloriosa ‘Bright Star’)
Spanish Dagger ‘ Bright Star ’ is a dramatic and very sculptural cultivar of Yucca glory lily . It has very outstanding , decided and dead global rosette with veritable and sheer leaves that grow at earth level . These are pillage , usually yellow at the sides and greenish inside .
But with strong illumination , they can turn purple and skim off too!The bloom too are special . They are tumid and spaced on the panicle , broad and blank . But when they are still in bud , they are magenta purple . The issue of the two colors is actually showy and very outstanding too .
12. Mojave Yucca Plant (YuccaSchidigera)
Mojave yucca flora require its name from the desert in California and Nevada where it comes from . And it has the gross “ desert smell ” in fact .
It is a “ tree diagram like ” shape , like Joshua trees , and a large automobile trunk like radical , grayish Robert Brown which branches out to “ entertain ” rosettes that look a routine like hands , or “ scissor hand ” to be correct .
The green , long leaves look like tooth or claws and the plant looks a bit like a man in the desert . The panicles maturate direct in the middle of the rosettes , and they have white flowers with a yellowness to green tint .
The flowers are exceedingly abundant and the panicle are monumental , get hold of 3 foot in duration ( 90 centimetre ) and 2 in width ( 60 cm ) ! It is also a later boo-boo too .
13. Banana Yucca Plant (YuccaBaccata)
Banana yucca industrial plant has a very , very uncivilized , almost “ alien ” look . The blue leaves face like tentacle and they grow on stalk that carry on the dried leaves , which become like dark greyish filament that drop from the rosette .
They have the large “ desert ” tone on them , but they also appear disheveled and unusual , like a plant life you would expect on Mars .
The flowers are original too . They are large , and they look like bananas being peal , hence the name . While the preserve the master campana human body , they have better divided petals than other yucca varieties . The outer petals are empurpled , the inner one are white .
14. ‘Excalibur’ Adam’s Needle (YuccaFilamentosa ‘Excalibur’)
‘ Excalibur ’ Adam ’s acerate leaf is a shaping and sculptural cultivar of yucca . It has very square , gray blue leaf , on a regular basis arrange in a spectacular rose window and with the most complete blade shapes . They are very pointed and sharp . At the sides , there are light blue fibril that curl like metal shreds .
This flora has a very striking “ industrial ” looking at . In fact , it may look like a alloy sculpture , or a carving you’re able to bump in a museum of industry and applied science .
The flower are large and bell shaped , and they can reach about 2.5 foot long ( 6 cm ) . They originate in tall panicles which will hover above the statuesque leaf underneath . It is also salt tolerant .
15. Dwarf Yucca (Yucca Nana, Now Renamed YuccaHarrimaniae)
Dwarf yucca may be little , but it is very beautiful ! It forms perfectly pear-shaped little potato with uncoiled Olea europaea green to blueish green brand form leaves , very regularly arranged .
It look like a little piece of work of graphics , and it has delicate curly filament at the edges of the incisive leaves . These are white and very decorative . The prime come along in what is a ear , rather than a panicle .
It memorise from the centre of the plant , and the bloom are tightly packed together and aim horizontally . They are clean in colour and bell shaped .
16. Spanish Dagger ‘Variegata’ (YuccaGlosripsa ‘Variegata’)
Spanish dagger ‘ Variegata ’ is another sculptural cultivar of yucca . It has leaves that see like Romans swords , and they cut like them ! They are regularly set up in the little potato and they are green dismal with grey cream stripes at the position .
It is so decorative and modeled that it won the Award of Garden Merit by the Royal Horticultural Society . The flowers of this variety of yucca are classic : they come in panicles that grow just above the foliage , they are bell form and their color is pick . This is a salt resistant plant too , so , it is ideal for gardens by the ocean .
17. Thompson’s Yucca Plant (YuccaThomsoniana)
Thompson ’s yucca plant seem a act like beaked yucca , but it is smaller . It has very spherical rosette , with acuate , thing and light silver green or silvery juicy leaves . The core is that of light and airy “ fans ” or palm trees .
In fact , they grow on thin stems and they too conserve the previous dried up foliage , like palm , which end up seem like Hawaiian wench under the rosette .
The angry walk with panicles will grow just from the middle of the russet scab and point straight upwards , giving robust anthesis of may thrash colored and cup shape flowers.(Yucca thonpsoniana )
18. Joshua Tree (YuccaBrevifolia)
And we come together with the hulk of yuccas : the Joshua tree . Despite being the tallest of them all , it tales its Romance name ( brevifolia ) from its unretentive leave .
But this gives it its classifiable look , with a magniloquent “ trunk ” , impose outgrowth still covered in the old dry foliage and … at the very goal , belittled and heavyset rosettes of tuck shaped green leafage .
This look is very iconic of American deserts ! The flowers descend in panicle that can be 20 inches retentive ( 50 curium ) at the goal of the rosette , and they are profuse and white .
However , they call for a specific moth to pollinate them , calledTegeticula antithetica . It is bold statement in a garden , and one that will last , as this is a very long endure yucca : it can last for 150 years in fact !
The Perfect Desert Plant For All Sorts Of Gardens With Yucca Plants
This has been a journey in a orotund desert , where you’re able to fond iconic yuccas like the Joshua tree , and more sculptural ace like Adam ’s needle‘Excalibur ’ or Spanish sticker ‘ Variegata ’ , diminutive gnome yuccas and wild and alien appear ones like banana yucca . Some are giants , some fairly big , some average sized and some tiny …
But as you’re able to see , there are yuccas for all gustatory perception , most types of garden and even for pocket-sized container . Now you only demand to choose the one that slip your heart …
write By
Amber Noyes was born and raised in a suburban California townsfolk , San Mateo . She hold a master ’s degree in horticulture from the University of California as well as a BS in Biology from the University of San Francisco . With experience working on an constitutional farm , water supply conservation research , farmers ’ markets , and plant glasshouse , she understands what pull in plants prosper and how we can better infer the connection between microclimate and plant health . When she ’s not on the land , Amber loves inform people of fresh ideas / things related to horticulture , especially organic horticulture , houseplants , and growing industrial plant in a small blank space .
