Bright Edge yucca brightens up a December Foliage Follow-Up

December 16, 2013


Edged with mellow-yellow stripes, Yucca filamentosa ‘Bright Edge’ adds a little sunshine to my garden on chilly winter days. Evergreen, drought tolerant, deer resistant, heat loving, and cold tolerant to US hardiness zone 4 or 5, ‘Bright Edge’ proves adaptable to everything except shade and damp soil. No worry of either on this fast-draining hillside, which gets baking hot in summer. Mexican feathergrass (Nassella tenuissima), wearing its tawny summer-through-winter hue, picks up the gold of the yucca’s stripes.


Looking uphill at it, you get a glimpse of its other dry-loving, heat-loving, sun-loving companions: gopher plant (Euphorbia rigida), spineless prickly pear (Opuntia), and four-nerve daisy (Tetraneuris scaposa). When the daisy blooms spring through fall, its sunny flowers echo those yellow stripes perfectly.

‘Bright Edge’ yucca gets about 1-1/2 feet tall and wide in my garden, a nice size for foundations and narrow beds, and its flexible leaves, while sharp-tipped, are unlikely to stab the unwary gardener in the shin. It’s often confused with the more popular ‘Color Guard’ yucca, but you’ll notice that the yellow runs up the center of ‘Color Guard’s leaves but along the edges of ‘Bright Edge’. ‘Color Guard’ has a more open, handsome form, in my opinion, while ‘Bright Edge’ is a little scruffier, with offsets clumping together as the plant grows. But those gilded leaves are so pretty you’ll want some for your winter — and summer garden — too.

Please join me in posting about your lovely leaves of December for Foliage Follow-Up, a way to remind ourselves of the importance of foliage in the garden on the day after Bloom Day. Leave your link to your Foliage Follow-Up post in a comment. I really appreciate it if you’ll also include a link to this post in your own post (sharing link love!). If you can’t post so soon after Bloom Day, no worries. Just leave your link when you get to it.

All material © 2006-2013 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

21 responses to “Bright Edge yucca brightens up a December Foliage Follow-Up”

  1. Well there is no foliage or blooms but we have lots of snow. I am profiling a favorite herb instead, rosemary. A great foliage plant indeed. Thanks for hosting Pam!!

    http://gardenseyeview.com/2013/12/16/simply-the-best-herbs-december/

  2. Mark and Gaz says:

    What a fantastic, well grown specimen that is. Such long leaves, it looks like a phormium already.

  3. Foliage is definitley important especially when the winter months are here. It’s too cold for blooms in my Long Island garden but there is plenty of foliage! Thanks for hosting Pam! http://landscapedesignbylee.blogspot.com/2013/12/garden-bloggers-bloom-day-foliage.html

  4. Caroline says:

    Well, heck. What I’ve thought was ‘Bright Edge’ for years (labeled as purchased from a somewhat reputable nursery) is really ‘Color Guard’, which explains why the two ‘Bright Edge’ I recently bought to accompany it look *completely different*. Frustrating! I would participate in FFU but I am working today and all my foliage plants are surrounded by dying Bermuda, ha!

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Bummer on the mixup, Caroline. I often see these yuccas mislabeled at the big-box stores, which isn’t too surprising, but it’s a shame it happened at a trusted nursery. As for your dying Bermudagrass, what a happy sight that must be! Feel free to join in Foliage Follow-Up any time this week and share the joy of dead Bermuda with us. —Pam

  5. Shirley says:

    The colors of yucca are so good in the garden year round and those bright accents certainly stand out as winter approaches.

    I’m posting a tour of the Fox family farm in Pennsylvania and the nearby Christmas Tree farm.

    http://rockoakdeer.blogspot.com/2013/12/pennsylvania-and-homemade-pumpkin-pie.html

  6. Peter/Outlaw says:

    “Bright Edge” is a handsome if scruffy yucca! They sure look great this time of year! My post is an after the freeze check of my agaves.

    http://www.outlawgarden.blogspot.com/2013/12/foliage-follow-up-december-2013-agave.html

  7. Scruffy…that’s the perfect description Pam, and just like a scruffy dog it’s oh so lovable!

    Like Peter I’m also doing an “after the freeze” post but got a little ambitious and walked the whole garden: http://dangergarden.blogspot.com/2013/12/foliage-follow-up-after-freeze.html

  8. Kris P says:

    I haven’t seen ‘Bright Edge” before. He doesn’t look so scruffy in his photo! Thanks for hosting foliage follow-up, Pam, and merry Christmas!. Here’s a link to what sunny (and warm) southern California has to offer: http://krispgarden.blogspot.com/2013/12/foliage-follow-up-december-2013.html

  9. Anna K says:

    Bright Edge is definitely a must-have! Like my fellow PNW bloggers, my post is all about the freeze. Thanks for hosting!

  10. Beautiful yucca! My (belated) Foliage Follow Up (my rosemary hedge) is here: http://enclosuretakerefuge.com/2013/12/17/foliage-follow-up-my-rosemary-hedge/

    Thanks for hosting!

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Alison, I tried to leave a comment on your post but can’t if the Name/URL option isn’t turned on in the comment field. So here’s my reply: “Holy smokes! I fell in love with this garden as soon as I saw the potted agaves in matching metal pots marching up the deck stairs. All of it is wonderful. How I’d love to explore it. Thanks for sharing your beautiful images.” —Pam

  11. Jeanette says:

    Pam, your bright edge yucca is very cheery for a corner. A few of the plants that you have suggested have done well in my garden (8a zone). The Helleborus niger is flowering and the Mahonia is starting to fill out. My herb garden made it through the freeze.

  12. Liking your lush ‘Bright Edge’ yucca…make that “strappy foliage”, the choice word now for such foliage!

    My post at:
    http://dryheatblog.wordpress.com/2013/12/17/foliage-followup-122013/

  13. Diana Studer says:

    Heart-shaped leaves on sea hibiscus, which do ‘autumn’ glory all year round.

    http://eefalsebay.blogspot.com/2013/12/buttery-yellow-hibiscus-tiliaceus.html