Red Yucca

"It's about time you feature this plant!", some of you desert lovers may exclaim.  While others of you may be thinking, "Ugh!  This ugly plant?" And yet other people may be thinking, "I don't even know what you're talking about."  If you're new to this blog, welcome. There's a lot of information on here about desert gardening/landscaping.  I've mentioned this plant several times in previous posts but nothing specific.  Essentially, it's one of the perfect plants for our Tucson climate.  "But why are you writing now about this plant?"  Well I've established a lot of the larger plants and now I'm working on the borders and mid layers of the gardens.  Some of you do not like this plant AT ALL!  For some, this plant can grow like a weed around our yards and get out of control. Like Jake Sully said from the movie "Avatar", "I See You."  Haha.  For many years I struggled with this plant.  Should I plant it?  Well after years of debate, I've decided that this is a cool plant for your desert landscape and here's why......

A special thanks to David Cristiani at the desert edge for his pics.

1. It's sun proof and flourishes in full sun.
2. It's tolerant of our clay soil.
3. Once it's established, it requires very little water/drought tolerant.
4. It has attractive red flowers.
5. Attractive red flowers ATTRACT hummingbirds...and lots of them.  Wildlife magnet.
6. Makes a nice patch of vegetation in your garden.
7. Once established, you don't have to do practically anything with it.
8. Adds structure to your garden.
9. It to be around 4 to 5 feet high and about as wide.
10. Moderate and clumping growth.
11. Best of all, it survived our Tucson freeze.  I highly recommend this perennial beauty.   When blooms are spent, you can remove them.  That's about all you have to do besides removing new clumps of red yucca from invading other spaces of your yard...but that takes several years before it happens. Zones 6-11 Frost hardy to about 10 degrees.

More tomorrow....