Overall plant
Common Name: Adam's needle
Type: Broadleaf evergreen
Family: Asparagaceae
Zone: 4 to 9
Height: 2.00 to 3.00 feet
Spread: 3.00 to 4.00 feet
Bloom Time: June to July
Bloom Description: Creamy white
Sun: Full sun
Water: Dry to medium
Maintenance: Low
Suggested Use: Naturalize
Leaf: Colorful, Evergreen
Tolerate: Deer, Drought, Dry Soil, Shallow-Rocky Soil
Culture
Easily grown in light, dry to medium, well-drained soils in full sun. Tolerant of poor, sandy soils, heat, drought, and salt spray. Surprising tolerance for some part shade. Can be propagated easily from basal offsets.
Noteworthy Characteristics
Yucca filamentosa, commonly called Adam’s needle, Spanish bayonet, yucca and needle palm, is a virtually stemless broadleaf evergreen shrub (though it looks more like a perennial than a shrub) that is native to beaches, sand dunes and fields from South Carolina south to Florida and Mississippi. It has escaped cultivation and extended its original range north into New England. It features a basal rosette of rigid, sword-shaped, spine-tipped green leaves (to 30” long and to 4” wide) with long filamentous (as per specific epithet) curly threads along the margins. Leaves form a foliage clump to 2-3’ tall. In late spring, a flowering stalk rises from the center of each rosette, typically to 5-8’ tall, but infrequently to 12’ tall, bearing a long terminal panicles of nodding bell-shaped creamy white flowers. Fruits are elliptical dehiscent capsules. Will form a small colony over time from basal offsets.
Genus name comes from the Carbi name for manihot, also called cassava or yuca, which is not closely related but has similarly enlarged root structures.
Specific epithet means with filaments or threads.
'Bright Edge' is a variegated selection of Adam's needle that features yellow-edged foliage. The leaves retain their variegation through winter. Individual plants will reach up to 3' tall with a 4' spread. Flowering stalks (up to 4' tall) emerge in early summer to mid-summer and are topped with terminal panicles of pendulous, creamy white blooms.
Problems
No serious insect or disease problems. Deer tend to avoid this plant.
Uses
Borders. Dry garden areas. Dry slopes. Adds architectural height. Also may be grown in large containers. Suitable for seaside gardens or areas which receive road salt runoff.