Yucca gloriosa 'CITRUS TWIST' Spanish dagger
size/type
small shrub,small shrub
usual height
0,5-1,5m
usual width
0,5-1m
leaves
evergreen broadleaf
colour of leaves
flowers
showy
colour of flowers
blooming time
September-November
location
full sun
soil type
any (acidic to alkaline)
soil moisture requirements
dry and sharply drained (xeriscape)
USDA zone (lowest)
7 (down to -23°C)
winter protection
for zone 5+6
for zone 7
categorized
Yucca
Trunk-forming yuccas are an exotic addition to dry xeriscape gardens which consists of solely trees, shrubs, and perennials that tolerate or even require complete drought for long periods and where watering is banned. Desert garden is another word often used since most of these plants come from the desert areas in Central America – from the deserts of the southwestern states of the USA to Mexico. Spanish dagger also belongs among tree yuccas, however, its trunk grows perhaps at the slowest pace.Spanish dagger comes from coastal parts of S.E. USA (North Carolina to Florida), where it naturally grows on sandy sites, exposed to wind, drought, and heat. Only very rarely does it undergo mutations, and so far only three varieties are known and named, all of which have variegated leaves. Citrus Twist is the latest of them from Australia which arose in the greenhouse field with numerous plants of the older variety Variegata, where it was spotted by a nurseryman. He noticed a significant colour change. The original plant had grey-green leaves with thin creamy to yellowish edges, but this new beauty boasted a much more pronounced colour palette.
Description of the plant:
Citrus Twist Spanish dagger bears grey-green leaves whose striking yellow margins often extend deeper into the centre of the leaf in the form of irregularly wide yellow stripes, making the base green colour a secondary shade. As a bonus, from mid-summer arrives a third colour tone: scarlet red to salmon-pink, which first appears on the very margins of the leaf blades and becomes more pronounced towards the centre of the rosette when cold weather in autumn and winter approaches.The leaves are evergreen, stiff, measuring 40-60 cm in length and 3-4 cm in width, slightly arching when young and strictly upright in maturity, topped with a sharp tip. They remain beautiful for several years until the lower leaves start drying out and demand removal for the sake of aesthetics. It can easily be confused with Adam’s needle (yucca filamentosa), whose leaves are much softer while the Spanish dagger has stiff and leathery blades.
Although flowers have not been observed on this variety yet, it does not mean it will not bloom in the future. This is exactly what happened with the older variety BRIGHT STAR, which bloomed about 15 years after its introduction, but meanwhile, the internet was flooded with reports that it couldn't bloom at all. Yucca gloriosa blooms about 3 months later than Yucca filamentosa – from late summer to autumn – and needs sufficiently long and hot summers to produce flowers here. The flowers are large, lightly fragrant, beige to creamy-white bells grouped in massive, upright panicles about 1.5 m tall here and even taller in its native habitat. They continue to bloom until the first frosts, perfectly succeeding other plants blooming in the second half of summer.
Yuccas look great if they are placed in a landscape where they will contrast with other plants in the garden and where their unusual architecture will complement the exotic atmosphere. If you are making a xeriscape garden, use a lot of various gravel, pebbles, and sand instead of mulch to cover the ground, and enhance the exotic feeling with plants of similar needs such as hardy agaves, cacti, or other drought-loving plants. It will help create a perfect Mediterranean-style landscape combined with other macchia-type plants such as arbutus, phillyrea, quercus ilex and quercus suber.
Yucca is an unpretentious plant that will grow in almost any well-drained soil of preferably neutral to alkaline pH. Spanish dagger needs free-draining soil, and it pays off to create a raised bed filled with gravel, grit, sand, and just a little bit of substrate where any water (from rain, irrigation, melting snow) will never linger. Give it full sun, water it after transplanting and then stay from watering forever. Under these growing conditions you can rely on its hardiness down to -24 °C without any protection.
Last update 02-01-2025
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GLOSSARY
- STANDARD QUALITY - Plants of this group are 1st class quality with number of branches and overall density adequate to their size and age, considering they were container grown.
- DE LUXE QUALITY - This label guarantees a luxurious quality of manually selected plants that, compared to their height and age, are exceptionally dense and beautiful.
- EXTRA - These plants are usually mature and bigger specimens with exceptional overall appearance.
- STANDARD (as described in the plant form) means a tree with a trunk of 190-210 cm and a crown at the top, unless specified differently. The commercial size for trees is their girth measured in the height of 1m from ground.
- HOBBY - These plants are of the same quality as our standard-quality plants but younger and therefore cheaper.
- SHRUB - a woody plant with branches growing bushy from the ground level.
- HALF-STANDARD or MINI-STANDARD - a small tree with shorter trunk, its size is usually specified.
- FEATHERED - These are trees with branches growing already from the base of the trunk and up along the stem.
- GRASSES and PERENNIALS - Sizes given usually read the diameter of the pot or the clump, as specified.
