Yucca rostrata ‘Blue and Blue’

Description Family Asparagaceae. Originating from the USA and Mexico. Striking, glaucous silver-blue leaves form a dense, spherical crown. White bell-shaped flowers bloom on tall spikes in summer. Easy to grow in full sun and poor, well-drained soil. Blue and Blue in Your Garden A selected strain of Yucca rostrata with intense blue tones to its leaves. Blue and Blue adds a new dimension to the exceptional silver species whilst retaining its strong, reliable growing traits. Its dome-shaped heads offer an exciting combination of architecture and colour, complementing other silver or blue Mediterranean plants. This yucca is hardy in southern and coastal UK gardens and slowly develops a trunk, becoming a striking architectural feature. After 10 – 2o years, it can reach 2.5 – 4m tall and 1.5 – 2.5m wide. Mature plants produce flower spikes up to 1.5m tall, with clusters of white, pollinator-attracting bell-shaped flowers. Many spiky Mediterranean-style plants can be downright lethal. This outstanding variety is different — its slender leaves make it far more approachable. That makes it safe and stunning for pots on Norfolk and Suffolk’s sunny patios: the perfect exotic architectural silver-blue yucca. ​Growing Tips for the Blue Beaked Yucca (Yucca rostrata). Soil and sun: in full sun for best flowering and faster growth, or partial shade, in any free-draining, poor soil. Planting: at any time of year. Never plant a dry plant! Plunge or stand in water for 30 minutes to drench the root ball before planting. Watering: easy: drought-tolerant once established. Water regularly during its first summer while it is rooting out. ​Pruning: none required. Leave dead leaf bases to clad the trunk, creating a natural-looking specimen, or remove to reveal a rugged trunk. Cut expired flower spikes as low as possible. ​Like many Asparagaceae family species, such as cordylines, Yucca rostrata Blue and Blue branches after flowering. After many years, this will result in a multi-headed tree-like specimen. Until then, this exotic architectural silver-blue yucca will maintain its architectural single pincushion-like head of azure foliage. Planting Ideas For the Exotic Silver-Blue Yucca rostrata Blue and Blue. ​Create a dramatic, deceptively soft-looking desert scene using the globe-shaped crowns of spiky species. Their rounded shapes and slender leaves create an undulating composition that belies their sharp nature. Dasylirions quadrangulatum, acrotriche and longissimum appear to have swaying grass-like leaves from a distance. Yucca linearifolia, Hesperoyucca whipplei, filamentosa ‘Linearifolia’, and thompsoniana add more rigid pincushions. ​Glamourise the spherical silver and blue spikes with the softer swords of Phormiums ‘Jester’, cookianum ‘Tricolor’, and ‘Cream Delight’. Add lower-growing drifts of Hesperaloe parviflora, with Erygiums ‘Big Blue’, ‘Picos Amethyst’, variefolium and Salvia ‘Little Spire’ adding cool azure hues. Finally, carpet the whole composition with Glandora ‘Heavenly Blue’.