A desert addition for a New England garden. Photo by Louis Varricchio.
It’s never too late or too early to plan for your backyard garden in Vermont. This new year, we look at New England’s distinctive trees and shrubs that are Cary Award winners. Named for a Massachusetts nurseryman, and administered by the Tower Hill Botanic Garden, the awards are given to several winners each year as judged by a panel of professionals.
These are either new plant introductions, or others that aren't new but deserve wider use in landscapes. The two winners for this year include a rose and a yucca—shrubs, but which are often grouped under perennials even though their tops generally don’t die back to the ground in winter.
Adam’s needle or yucca (Yucca filamentosa) has an interesting and different habit, consisting of long sword-shaped leaves with sharp tips (use eye protection when working around them, and keep children away). Flowers in June and July are on stalks to 7 feet high above the basal leaves, which are only up to 2 feet high. The large and creamy white bell-shaped flowers are held in large open clusters of several dozen flowers, making quite the show. The sweet scent of flowers attracts a pollinator in native areas— the very small yucca moth.
Although evergreen in winter, in colder climates such as much of Vermont, the leaves may get quite a bit of browning from winter injury. This damaged growth dies back the next season in these climates as new growth emerges. It will grow to USDA zone 6 in the north (0 to -10 degrees F minimum in winter), and in protected sites in the colder zone 5.
Adam’s needle has been used medicinally and the leaves, with their white curly threads or filaments along the edges, have given rise to the species name. Native peoples used the strong leaf filaments to weave into fabrics.
Prev Next
Comments
Use the comment form below to begin a discussion about this content.
Sign in to comment
Or login with:
OpenID