Garden Notes

Adam's Needle yucca plant in bloom

My sister Mutsie loves to travel and particularly likes the Southwest. She and her husband take vacations in Arizona, New Mexico and southern California and take a lot of photos of the native plants. One year she brought me a Yucca plant or Adam’s Needle for my garden.

Now, according to my plant book, Adam’s Needle or Yucca filamentosa is a slow growing native evergreen shrub that does not shed its leaves and will stay small, growing no more than 3 foot tall. It has stiff, narrow and pointed leaves with fibrous edges that end with a sharp spine at the tip. All the leaves grow from one point taking the form of a rosette.  It is very drought tolerant and will grow in dry, sandy or rocky soils. Since our garden has heavy clay soil, and since I water when things get dry, I was not sure how it would like its new home.

At first that yucca didn’t look like much, sort of a small spiky shape reminiscent of an iris. I planted it and waited for the yucca to settle in. When spring came, I noticed that it greened up earlier than almost everything else, and the spiky shape added visual interest while the garden was waking up. Also it seemed to be growing larger so that was a good sign.

The second year that yucca plant produced a flower which I found quite spectacular. The spike was about 5 foot high with a large showy clump of creamy white bells on top that lasted for several weeks. When it finally faded and I cut it down, I found that the spike was very dense and woody — a lot different from other flower spikes which are usually much thinner and more flexible.

That was a few years ago, and I now have three of the yucca plants in my garden. This year two of them are in bloom, and one of them has two flower spikes. The Adam’s needle yucca plant has been a great addition to my perennials. It has been relatively carefree, blending in most of the year and adding a bold statement to the far end of the garden when it blooms. I would recommend it highly to any gardener looking for a dramatic accent in their perennial bed, especially if the garden is sunny and dry.