Yucca Plant Care and Growing Tips

How to Grow Yucca Plants

Doreen Wynja for Monrovia

• Yucca
• Yucca species and cultivars
• Zones 4 to 11, depending on variety
• Light needs: Full sun
• Soil: Well-draining

Its swordlike evergreen leaves grow in a starburst pattern that sets yucca apart from ordinary garden plants. And there’s a good reason why so many gardeners, especially those in the Southwest, use yucca as a backyard centerpiece. Yucca is known for being water-wise once established.

Check out more flowering full sun desert plants to grow.

These perennials are also a good choice for your moon garden because the flowers stay open into the evening.

A few favorites to look for: Yucca rostrata ‘Sapphire Skies’, Yucca cernua and Yucca flaccida ‘Golden Sword.’  Color Guard Adam’s Needle, Yucca filamentosa, is an especially striking variegated plant with towering white flower stalks.

These plants appeal to pollinators, too. Yucca’s nectar-rich blooms attract plenty of hummingbirds. Scott’s orioles are known to nest in yucca’s dense foliage clusters.

Drought-tolerant agave plant grows well in containers.

Yucca Not Blooming

IdealPhotoArt.com / Alamy Stock Photo

“My six yucca plants send up new leaves, but only two of them bloom. What can I do to get more flowers?” asks Birds & Blooms reader Steve Richman of Athens, Pennsylvania.

Horticultural expert Melinda Myers says, “Yuccas thrive and flower best in full sun and well-draining soil. Make sure all six plants are receiving sufficient sunlight. Avoid excess fertilization. Too much nitrogen fertilizer promotes leaf growth and can interfere with flowering. See if the nonflowering plants are more exposed to fertilizer that’s applied to the surrounding area or lawn.”

“Yuccas also tend to be biennial flowering plants,” Melinda says. “This means you may see flowers every other year, or different plants may flower in alternating years.”

Next, learn how to grow a desert rose plant.