Massing of Color Guard yuccas
When it doesn’t rain and temperatures soar into the 100s every day for weeks, the garden can look a bit…shall we say…parched. I recently responded by ripping out a mishmash of crispy plants, a lot of onesies and twosies brought along from my former garden, and replaced them with a curved line of dramatic ‘Color Guard’ yuccas (Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard’). They are bookended by ‘Winter Gem’ boxwood, unfazed by our broiling summer.
When I design gardens for other people I often use masses of one type of plant for impact, but the plant collector in me fights against it in my personal garden. However, I’m not missing the spotty clutter that was formerly this bed, one of two curving spaces around my stock-tank pond. Now I’ve got to come up with something equally dramatic and xeric for the shady side, to complement the sunny side’s ‘Color Guard’ yuccas.
It’s always fun to redo a planting bed. And with yuccas you don’t have to wait until fall to break out the shovel. Unlike me, they love the heat.
All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I think I need to follow your example and do some onesy removal. I don’t have the color guard yucca yet but I see them in my garden’s future.
I just hope they won’t be susceptible to the agave weevil, like softleaf yucca is. I haven’t been troubled with the weevil in my new garden, but I fear it’s just a matter of time. —Pam
Likewise – I think it’s time to remove some of my random plants – This looks fabulous. How fortunate we are that you share your design tips with us.
Why, thanks, Christine. Just paying it forward. I get good design ideas all the time while reading other blogs. —Pam
Nice choice. I agree wholeheartedly about being a plant ‘collector’; that is onesy and twoseys. Ha! I too am looking at more heat tolerant species. Especially after coming back from Colorado, and seeing there natives. Yesterday I went through plant delights catalog looking at Yucca and Agave. Not too many choices for my zone, unfortunately. It will be interesting to see what I come up with.
But I bet you have other striking plants that do great in your region. There are so many cool-climate plants I’d love to be able to grow. —Pam
As this interminable heat and drought wind on, I’m ever more interested in planting yuccas and agaves. I love how that sweep of ‘Color Guard’ looks!
Thanks, Cindy. Yuccas and agaves make wonderful counterpoints to a flowery, cottage-style garden like yours. —Pam
It looks very great Pam! Mass planting is something I need to start doing more of, it makes such a statement in the garden. Plus it looks less messy as you pointed out. Of course the collector feels a bit sad at not picking up every great new plant on the market. 🙂
Yes, the collector must be restrained much of the time, but I do indulge every so often. It’s too fun to try new plants not to “let loose” occasionally. —Pam
I love ‘Color Guard’ but it is your boxwood choice that caught my attention. When we redo the sidewalk beds, under the crepe myrtles, we want to use boxwood, but I was worried about hot conditions.
I’ve used both ‘Winter Gem’ and ‘Wintergreen’ and found both to be excellent performers in our hot, humid summers, Cameron. As a bonus, both stay fairly small without requiring heavy pruning. —Pam
Looks good. We’re going to redo the ‘island bed’ in front…between the circular drive and the street. But, that’s when it’s a bit cooler, for working outside.
Color Guard looks like a good one for us to use. It can handle the cold, too, right?
I tend to be a ‘collector’, too. Trying to get away from that and have more drought, heat and cold tolerant plants, in an actual ‘design’.
Thanks for the tips.
Stay cool.
Linda, ‘Color Guard’ yucca will have no trouble with the cold. See Frances’ comment, below, for more info on that. —Pam
That’s going to look extra fab when the sweet potato winds itself all over through there. Very nice!
Thanks for noticing, Jenn. I’d planted the sweet potato vine there earlier, but I left it when I replanted because I thought it would look nice twining through the yuccas. It’s a little sun-scorched, but I hope it can make it through to late summer, when it should really take off. —Pam
Ah, see, now I have been thinking of ripping out the crispy plants since the last coupla years have been so dry and hot. But you know the second I go through the trouble to swap out plants that enjoy the hot and dry, the pattern will change and we will have a la nina and 80 inches of rain the next year, swiftly putting to death said new xeric plantings. Yay Central Texas Gardening. 😛
So true, Michelle. Each year seems to have its extremes. The key to getting yuccas and agaves through the wet years is excellent drainage. If you don’t garden on a slope, as I do, consider building up your beds with gravelly soil, and mulch with gravel to keep the root crown dry. —Pam
Now that just looks degrees cooler! I’d suggest maybe a swath of a fern, native or otherwise, on the opposite shady side. No onesies and twosies there either! Much easier to preach than practice…
Good suggestion, Denise. I am considering a swath of our native river fern, although it’s deciduous, and I’d prefer an evergreen as a counterpoint to the yuccas. There’s also a height difference, with the yucca side being a good half-foot higher than the shady side. So I am also considering something taller for the shady side. Or maybe ferns accented with a series of shade-tolerant Yucca pallida in tall pots. So many options… —Pam
This looks really good!
Thanks, Darla. I like the bold color and form. —Pam
It looks fabulous, Pam, well done! It is so difficult to make those tough decisions in our own gardens, but wow, it really was the right thing to do. We have found those variegated yuccas to withstand all sorts of weather, even covered in heavy, wet snow without blicking a sword.
Yuccas are wonderfully heat AND cold tolerant, aren’t they? So different from many agaves in that regard. —Pam
It looks really nice Pam! That collector’s spirit is really hard to squelch isn’t it?! All the areas in my beds that have mass plantings are favorites but I can’t seem to stop myself from putting in so many different plants. I’m going to try to remember this post next time I’m impulsively snatching up plants at the nursery!
Oh, me too, Cat. When you love plants, it’s hard to practice restraint. But the results can be worth it. —Pam
Spotty Dutter, I love that terminology. I know I have some onsies that I could eliminate. Maybe after this heat spell we are having I will be so inclined. I think your mass planting is pretty. I even like the lit
My font is misleading, Lisa. I actually typed “spotty clutter,” c-l-u-t-t-e-r. Spotty dutter sounds like a Scottish delicacy of some sort, doesn’t it? —Pam
OOps, I laid my hand on the mouse pad and it submitted my comment before I was finished. Sorry. Anyway I was saying I even like the little blue grass right in front of the yuccas. It has a different feel and look but blends. Maybe you could carry that forward.
The blue grasses are ‘Pink Crystals’ ruby grass (Melinis nerviglumis), Lisa, and they were the only ones that survived our deep freezes last winter. I haven’t had the heart to rip them out, even though I think having two tiny grasses there looks ridiculous. I would add more, but I just haven’t had luck keeping them alive in either of my two Austin gardens. I may add Mexican feathergrass in there instead. —Pam
Beautiful plant to group together…a stunning effect! I group some plants together, but I am often reluctant to do so…for fear that one may die and leave me with a bad design. I suppose it is a chance we must take.
Yes, I think about that possibility too, especially with expensive plants like these yuccas, or slow-growing shrubs. But the results are worth the risk, I believe. —Pam
That Color Guard Yucca is quite striking, Pam. If you wanted to duplicate the look on the other side, you could put in a stand of Variegated Dianella in the shady side. You are so right, and a great inspiration, about a mass of plants being so much more impressive than dutter. That’s a great word, by the way! I have way too much dutter in my back yard; perhaps Color Guard would do okay with only morning sun?
Great minds think alike, Robin. I was convinced that variegated dianella would work on the shady side opposite the ‘Color Guard’ and give a similar effect, so I bought a few to try it out. But it didn’t work. The dianella’s white-and-green stripes looked not-quite-right as a counterpoint to the yellow-and-green stripes of the ‘Color Guard.’ So I planted the dianella elsewhere. As for the “dutter,” see my answer to Lisa’s comment above; it’s meant to be c-l-u-t-t-e-r, but my font is misleading.
To answer your question, ‘Color Guard’ may take only morning sun, but I haven’t tried it personally. I have three in the front yard that get only afternoon sun, and they are doing great. —Pam
I love your Color Guard Yucca, Pam! They are one of my favorite cacti! And one of the good things about them, is that yes, they do love our unbearable (lately for sure) heat! Will they put out a bloom spike in the fall? My yucca did this year, much to my surprise…lovely!
I hope they will bloom soon, Diane, but I have three in the front garden that have yet to bloom, even after two seasons. Perhaps they have to mature for a while first. —Pam
Its funny how we move plants from one house to another thinking we cant leave them behind and then we end up pulling them up anyway. I like your yuccas and the way they emphasis the curve of the path
It’s true, Helen. So many plants from my former garden ended up being temporary fillers in my new garden, until I got to the point where I found the right plants for each space. But at least they were free! —Pam
Pam, wanted to share with you – Lucinda Hutson was here this week speaking to our Tulsa Herb Society. She was such a delight! We all loved her and her inspiring program, I bought her cookbook and as she was graciously signing it for me I mentioned to her that I had already had the pleasure of seeing her garden through your eyes as I’d viewed your pics here on your blog of your tours at her house. She told me how sweet you were. Maybe sometime when you’re up here you can stop by and visit us “herbies” as we call ourselves. Really such a small world, isn’t it? 🙂
Lucinda is a lovely lady, isn’t she? And so gracious and welcoming about sharing her garden. I adore her. Thank you for the invitation to meet the “herbies” in Tulsa. That would be fun, and maybe I’ll make it up there one day. Coincidentally I was just there last week to help my mother move; she loves Tulsa but has moved to Austin to be close to family. —Pam