About That Yucca That Stepped Out With Me

Tina from (In The Garden) asked me if I planned my plant purchases or if it was chance. I do keep a list of plants I would love to have, but, the truth is most of the time it's chance (impulse purchases). I get them home and then spend days dragging them around the garden trying to find the perfect spot. Sometimes they stay in the plastic nursery pots until fall, which is a better time to plant in my yard. Our summers can be brutal on spring transplants.


The Yucca was an impulse purchase. I thought it was a particularly lovely Yucca filamentosa 'Varigata'. It had the white margins of a variegated Yucca with a narrow strip of maroon. There was just something different about it.



It turns out that it is different. The biggest clue ought to have been the missing filamentous threads along the plant edges. It isn't the Y filamentosa that's native to the southeastern US, but is Yucca gloriosa Variegata. It clearly says that on the plant label, the one I didn't look at. It also says that it is hardy in zone 6. Some of the big box stores aren't always as careful about offering plants that are completely hardy for the Middle Tennessee area, so I knew I needed to find out about this yucca.


Y filamentosa variegata



Now this is a perfectly lovely Yucca, good looking in fact. I love the stiff leaves, the outstanding margin color and the architectural aspect of the plant. Whether or not it is the right Yucca for this Central Basin garden remains to be seen.



Yucca-Do's Yucca and photo

Here is what Plant Delight says about Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata' (Variegated Mound-lily Soapwort)


Sun to Part Sun Zone: 7-10, at least 48" tall Origin: USA
We have grown this wonderful yucca for years...originally from the JC Raulston Arboretum. Each 2-3' wide, trunked clump reaches 48" in height in 10 years. The blue-green, rigid leaves are bordered with a wide margin that emerges gold, then changes to a rich cream. The good color contrast holds all season! In mid-summer, this stunning yucca is topped with 3' tall spikes with attractive, large, white, bell-shaped flowers. Y. gloriosa is a great addition to the perennial border and deserves a special place in the dry garden!

Then this from Yucca-do nursery:

Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata'
Zone 7 to 10 Native to Gulf Coast Grows to 8'h x 6'w

Variegated mound lily! An awesome color variant of one of our most forgiving landscape yuccas. Has all the fabulous qualities of the species with the added splash of year around color - the cream to yellow variegation blushes red in the winter. The photo to your left (above in this post) illustrates those attributes.

and, finally, here is what Monrovia says about it:

Rigid blue-green leaves are bordered with gold when new, gradually becoming rich cream. Striking when grouped in a low-water garden or spotted in flowering perennial beds for contrasting color and texture. Fragrant purple-tinged white flowers on a 6 to 8 ft. spike in summer. After several years, develops a trunk and the plant becomes 4 to 5 ft. tall and wide; ultimately 6 to 8 ft. tall and wide. Evergreen.

Wow, that is some big plant, with outstanding colored leaves, and fragrant purple tinted flowers. No, this is some big shrub!


Is anyone growing this big guy? I am thinking seriously of escorting him back to Home Depot. He is beautiful, but I'm not sure I can find a place in the garden for him.

Gail