Yucca in Landscaping

Landscaping with the Sword-like Yucca

• Assuming you've decided the benefits of the yucca outweigh the risk of including its sharp, sword-like leaves in your landscape design, you need to know how it serves you as a part of the landscape. Yucca plants are generally hardy. They require little water and are suitable plants for sustainable gardens such as xeriscapes or "dry" gardening. According to the National Resource Conservation Service, xeriscaping shows up to 50 percent savings in water usage alone over other landscaping practices. There are several varieties of yucca. The taller varieties are ideal as a focal point in plant groupings and make a showy display when in bloom. Blooms begin to appear in mid-April, are fully mature in July and continue to bloom through the fall. They correspond well with other drought-resistant plants.

Yucca Used as an Accent Plant

• Yucca is native to our southwestern states, USDA plant hardiness zones 7 to 10. The plant is fairly cold-hardy. Some varieties grow in states as far north as Montana and Colorado. They do need good drainage. Yuccas combine well with most plants but in their natural environment you would expect to see them as solitary displays among the rocks and scant vegetation on the desert floor, or on the craggy lower slopes of a mountain. Perhaps for this reason they fit into your landscape design as specialty plants to be showcased and not played down by other outstanding plants. Use them as accent plants in an otherwise subdued tableau. The height of the large blossom on its long, spike-like stem is impressive. Its long blooming season gives it plenty of time to "show off."

Tropicals for Northerners

• Yuccas seem to prefer dry conditions but don't complain about a little rain. They love heat, and would fit into a tropical setting with good drainage. If your taste runs toward the tropical look, try yucca with such plants as papyrus, variegated shell ginger and bird of paradise. For northern gardeners far out of the tropic zone, according to Healthy Garden, a western Canada garden annual, the golden sword yucca will grow in zone 4, and used creatively, is reminiscent of the pineapple plant. There are other plants that resemble those of the tropics. For example, ferns, including the maidenhair fern, will grow in the north.

Yucca as a Deer Deterrant

• The yucca is serving us in more ways than just as an eye-catching plant in the garden. According to David Hillock, horticulturist at Oklahoma State Cooperative Extension, white-tailed deer have become a problem to gardeners and landscapers. Yucca plants are off-putting to browsing deer and are being used as barriers to protect other plants from their voracious appetites. The most effective way to control deer damage is a fence. But deer are high jumpers and unless the fence is at least 8 feet high they will clear it. Fences of that height are not attractive in landscape design. A wide border of yuccas is more effective and a spectacular display when in bloom