Bright Edge Yucca

In those hot, sunny, brightly-lit parts of the garden, you need plants that are just as bright as the sunlight. The Bright Edge Yucca is certainly that, with every leaf boldly edged in brilliant gold, reflecting the sun’s golden rays on the hottest and driest days. Never worry again if your plants are getting enough water, and you can also forget about spending hot summers days standing with a hosepipe. The Bright Edge Yucca is the perfect answer to easy-care containers too, filling them with bright color that will be still looking great even when you forget to water them.

Growing Bright Edge Yucca Plants

The Bright Edge Yucca is an upright, leafy plant growing into a bold clump of many narrow leaves 2 to 3 feet tall and across. Each green leaf is boldly edged with a broad band of golden yellow, which can sometimes occupy most of the leaf, and other times be split into additional golden bands. Each leaf is slightly different, but most have a central green stripe flanked on both side by a wide golden stripe. The effect is colorful, and since this plant looks good all year round, this strong color statement is there for good – not passing quickly like flowering plants. The center leaves of the clump are strongly upright, while the outer ones turn more outwards, and lower ones may turn towards the ground. The overall effect is striking but casual, and it fits perfectly with all the other plants in your garden.

Older plants of the Bright Edge Yucca will send up a tall flower spike in late summer. This reaches to 5 feet tall, and it is topped with many large flowers, hanging like bells. These creamy-white flowers are large and beautiful, with a rich perfume. If you do not remove the flower spike once flowering has finished, large rounded seed pods will develop, and create interest in the fall.

Hardiness

This is the hardiest of all the Yucca plants, growing even in zone 4, although there some winter protection is needed for the foliage. Even if the leaves are browned by winter cold, new leaves rapidly appear in spring, and by early summer your plant is looking great again. It is also resistant to salt-spray and grows even in pure sand. It makes the perfect plant for a beach cottage, or for any garden in coastal areas, where it is completely resistant, and it thrives in the heat and dryness typically found in these gardens.

Uses on Your Property

Use the Bright Edge Yucca in any sunny and dry part of your garden, as a specimen plant, or mixed in a bed with other low-watering plants. These ‘xeric’ gardens are increasingly popular in areas where summer water shortages are common, or where you are concerned with reducing water consumption. Mixed with plants like junipers, sedums, grasses and other plants from dry areas, and planted among boulders and gravel, you can create attractive and colorful beds that are also extremely low-maintenance. In planter boxes and pots, this plant is always attractive, and it has the great advantage that it will thrive in a container even if you only water infrequently.

Planting and Initial Care

The Bright Edge Yucca will grow from zone 4 into all the warmer zones, and it thrives in sunny parts of your garden. Do not plant in shade or moist soil. it will grow in almost any soil, doing well even in poor, sandy, stony or gravel soils. For planting in containers, make sure there is a drainage hole, and use a potting soil designed for succulent plants and cacti. Otherwise add 25% sand to regular potting soil. Water thoroughly, and then let the soil dry completely before watering again. Once established, garden plants are very drought resistant, and almost never need supplementary watering. This plant is usually free of pests or diseases, and deer leave it alone.

History and Origins of the Bright Edge Yucca

Yucca plants grow throughout warmer parts of North America, and in the Caribbean. The Spanish bayonet, or Adam’s needle, grows throughout the southeast and west into Texas. Called Yucca filamentosa, it can easily be identified by the many fine white threads that curve from the edges of the leaves. The origin of the variety called ‘Bright Edge’ has been lost, but striped variations are seen from time to time in these plants. Should any new plants be produced from the base that have plain green leaves, remove them completely below ground, to preserve the beauty of this wonderful variety.

There is enormous interest from our clients in plants for hot places, and xeric gardening in general. We will miss them, but we know these plants will soon be gone from our stock. Order now and bring color to your garden with no effort at all.