DWARF YUCCA

Yucca harrimaniae

This yucca is quite similar to its many relatives throughout the Southwest, but it is found much further north in our region than any other species, and it is fully cold-hardy. It is also quite variable in the form of its rosettes of basal leaves. Some clumps are no bigger than a softball--hence the name dwarf yucca--while others have leaves a foot or more long. But all members of this species possess sturdy flowering stalks held well above the leaves and dense spikes of large, cream-colored, cup-shaped flowers that often hang down like bells. Like all yuccas, dwarf yucca has leaf rosettes that can produce flowering stalks year after year. This distinguishes them from their relatives the century plants (Agave), whose rosettes die after a single flowering. Dwarf yucca works well as an accent plant combined with desert shrubs and perennials. It adds a textural contrast as well as winter interest and a fine show in flower. The leaves are rather dagger-like, however, so plant dwarf yucca where contact will be minimal.