I’ve brought a couple home under the name Yucca aloifolia ‘Purpurea,’ but I’ve recently been seeing it tagged as Yucca desmetiana ‘Blue Boy,’ as it was here at Cornerstone Sonoma, in the Transcendence garden designed by Delmar McComb and Peter Hanson. This yucca’s soft, recurved leaves are very unlike the typically stiff leaves of Yucca aloifolia, so we seem to be shuttling between various names until the nomenclature is definitively settled. Mine haven’t colored up like these yet, which is a big part of the allure of this mysterious yucca.
Background shrubs are phlomis, rosemary and leucadendron.
Love it! Just bought one from Annie’s recently and potted it up and put it in my plant ghetto. It is waiting there with all my other cool plants for my next home and garden.
This is really a lovely plant! Great photos too!
Kaveh, I saw that Annie is carrying this yucca now. And you’re moving again!?
Deanne, mine are singletons in different spots, but I like how they’re grouped here so may copy this.
This is the yucca you talked me into at Annie’s during the Fling! As Cindy from Houston predicted, unfortunately, mine has lost all traces of purple due to our heat. I’m hoping it’ll return this fall. Does yours change color through the seasons?
Pam, yes, the very same! Mine doesn’t have purple at the moment either. I’m hoping they color up more as they mature and the leaves grow older maybe?
Will it survive a frost in NYC?
Samantha, it’s reputed to be OK to zone 7 with protection, so if you’re in an unusually warm microzone in NYC, like the infamous Long Island water effect, but otherwise probably not.
Hi There. I got one from Annie’s a year or two ago and it has hardly grown at all (maybe a few inches, having started from a 4″ pot) even thought it’s planted in a sunny spot in Santa Cruz that meets its requirements. I’m being very patient with it, and seeing these pictures keeps me motivated, but did others also find it to be quite slow growing?
Julie, I wouldn’t call it slow here, but it does grow in a tall, snakish fashion that I haven’t seen elsewhere. I’ve seen it grown to perfection in Sonoma, at Cornerstone, but don’t know if it’s still there. I know it struggles in the PNW. Here it makes size steadily and grows tall then flops over along the ground. Maybe yours will grow slowly and stay in a tight rosette.