Hardy Yucca Plants
- Yucca are striking specimens in cooler landscapes.Morey Milbradt/Photodisc/Getty Images
Yucca plants primarily inhabit warm-weather environments. A few yucca are able to withstand colder temperatures. Give your yucca plants their best chance to flourish by growing them in a warm environment with plenty of sunlight. Outside of their ideal settings, they may not reach their full heights or produce truly vibrant flowers. Making matters worse is that determining hardiness is not always a simple matter, because of limited data and varying conditions outside of traditional environments. - Banana yucca (Yucca baccata) is a stemless plant. It is usually single, but sometimes grows in clumps with short, reclining stems. The leaves grow to 30 inches in length. They are narrow, with pointed tips. It produces a flowering stem that is 40 inches tall. The Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center describes the flower as "large, pendant, fleshy white flowers with a red-purple tinge." Yucca baccata produce edible, fleshy fruit that is shaped like a banana. It is hardy to United States Department of Agriculture hardiness zone 5.
- Faxon yucca (Yucca faxoniana) is an upright and tall yucca. It is native to West Texas and Northern Mexico. It grows between 25 to 40 feet tall and expands 10 feet wide. The leaves are proportionately large, measuring 3 feet long and 2 to 5 inches wide. As the leaves die, they form a dense thatch around the trunk. They have a very high heat tolerance, while at the same time they are hardy to zone 6. In late spring and summer, it produces creamy-white flowers that have a bell shape. A terminal stalk emerges from the center of the plant rising 3 to 4 feet high.
- Beaked or big bend yucca (Yucca rostrata) has long flexible leaves of a silvery blue-green color. In the spring, it produces clusters of white blooms that sit on top of the plant. Yucca rostrata grows, on average, to 10 feet high. Yucca rostrata is hardy to zone 5b, according to the University of Tennessee, and requires a full-sun location. It does not require much water and needs to be in soil that drains well, in particular if it experiences heavy rainfalls.
- Thompson's yucca (Yucca thompsoniana) grows to between 6 and 12 feet high. It bears a single trunk that typically measures 5 to 8 inches in diameter. The leaves are narrow and stiff. They grow in a mass that radiates out near the top. The leaves are 8 to 24 inches long. The leaves are widest at their middle, forming narrow, needle-like tips at the ends. White flowering stalks protrude from the top of the plant and reach heights of 2 to 3 feet. Thompson's yucca are hardy to zone 5.
