Great Plant Picks: Yucca filamentosa “Color Guard”

Published 1:30 am Thursday, August 11, 2016

Variegated yucca, Yucca filamentosa “Color Guard”: This variegated evergreen shrub is grown for its architectural quality, as its striped, sharp-tipped, sword-shaped leaves stand out in any border or as a specimen container plant. Add to that a flower spike that can reach 6 feet or more carrying dozens of pendulous, cream-colored flowers in summer, and you have a real show stopper. “Color Guard” has a broad, bright yellow stripe up the center of each leaf and the leaf margins are edged with variable stripes of green. In addition, the margins have curly white threads, giving the plant its specific epithet of “filamentosa”. Yuccas are also extremely easy to grow and drought and heat tolerant.

Size: 3 feet tall by 5 feet wide

Where: full sun

Water: occasional watering to drought tolerant

— Richie Steffens, Great Plant Picks