Hardiness zones
Sunset 5-24
USDA 6-11
Landscape Use: Specimen accent, Spanish architecture
Form & Character: Evergreen, perennial, stiff, alarming and dangerous, arborescent with age, stately
Growth Habit: Herbaceous perennial, branched and upright to 10' with less than equal spread.
Foliage/texture: Relatively stiff and dagger like glaucous leaves with finely serrate and yellowed margins (less than 16" in length) tapering to a sharp tip; coarse texture.
Flowers & fruits: Multiple extended slender panicles of cream-colored bell shaped flowers, stalks to 5' tall. Fruits are a non ornamental capsule, seeds are a dull black.
Seasonal color: Cream white flowers on slender stalks during late spring.
Temperature: Heat tolerant and VERY cold tolerant to -10oF.
Light: Full sun in Phoenix.
Soil: Tolerant, grows best in alkaline soil.
Watering: Very drought tolerant, but looks better with occassional summer irrigation.
Pruning: Remove spent flower and fruiting stalks only. Leave the dead leaves on for authenticity as they create a very tight skirt.
Propagation: Seed (soak seed in tepid water for 24 hours before sowing to shorten germination period), offsets, and root cuttings
Disease and pests: None
Additional comments: Yucca thompsoniana looks like a smaller hybridized version of Y. brevifolia and Y. rostrata. There is a very boss looking dwarf phenotype that grows only on the Edwards Plateau of Texas. Beaked yucca is found over a wide range of landscape across the United Staets from Brooklyn, New York to Tarzana, California. It grows exceptionally well in Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona.
Some taxonomic confusion exists among yucca enthusiasts between Yucca thompsoniana and Yucca rigida.