Yucca filamentosaAdam's Needle

The Yucca filamentosa, commonly known as Adam's Needle, is a stemless evergreen rosette plant from the sandy woods and dunes of the south eastern United States. Stiff, sword-shaped blue-green leaves carry curling white filaments along their margins, and a tall branched panicle of nodding cream bells rises well above the foliage in summer.

It is unusually cold-hardy for a yucca and equally at home in heat, which gives it a very wide site range. It is used at ground level in gravel gardens, median beds and mixed dryland planting where an evergreen architectural form is wanted below eye height.

Specifications

• Height0.6 to 1 metre as a rosette, with a flower panicle to 2.5 metres
• Width1 to 1.5 metres
• Native toThe south eastern United States
• FoliageStiff, sword-shaped blue-green leaves with curling white marginal filaments and a soft tip; evergreen
• Growth rateSlow

Conditions

• SoilRequires well-drained sandy or gravelly soils; tolerates poor and alkaline ground and dislikes wet feet
• LightFull sun to partial shade
• WaterLow; strongly drought-tolerant once established
• ClimateThrives in arid, semi-arid, Mediterranean and coastal regions, and tolerates hard frost as well as extreme heat

Additional Features

• FormDense stemless rosette holding a precise architectural outline at ground level with no pruning
• FlowersTall branched panicle of nodding cream bells in summer, held well above the foliage
• UsesGravel and xeriscape gardens, median and roundabout beds, mixed dryland planting, container and podium planting
• SpacingPlant 1 to 1.5 metres apart so each rosette is read individually
• Low MaintenanceRemove the spent flower stem and any dead lower leaves; no other intervention required
• Pest ResistanceVery few pest or disease problems where drainage is good
• Drought ToleranceHigh, holding foliage and form through long dry periods
• Frost ToleranceTolerates hard frost, well beyond the range of most architectural succulents
• Salt ToleranceTolerates coastal salt wind and sandy saline soils

Adam's Needle supplies a hard evergreen architectural form at ground level, on a plant that will take both frost and desert heat.