PlantFiles: Redflower False Yucca, Red Yucca
Hesperaloe parviflora

This yucca thrives in Texas Hill Country (zone 7b/8a), where we have virtually no soil. What soil we have is alkaline. I have one yucca that blooms yellow some years, and red others. Maybe it is actually two plants, but it appears to be only one (????) Anyone know why this happens? Red yuccas are easy to reproduce from the abundant seeds that grow on the bloom stalks. I haven't had very many volunteer plants occur naturally, though. When I pot the seeds, they are relatively slow-growing. Since large plants are not expensive, it's hardly seems worthwhile propagating your own. My red yuccas grow in shade, sun -- anywhere, but are drip-irrigated weekly, so can't really say how they would do without irrigation, or in a different climate zone. And it's nice to have something green year-around, as our area predominately supports perennials, with few exceptions. This is a great addition to a "dry" garden!!

VERY positive. This plant is simply amazing. I have both the red and the yellow varieties. The blooms last so long and the hummingbirds seem to love them. I have this next to a wooden fence and I receive compliments on it all the time.

I have saved seeds of my plant and they germinated very well. I let them dry and store them in a zip/lock bag. When I want to start them, I simply add water to the bag. As soon as the seeds start to sprout, I pot them up and they always grow 100%. I only pot up the seeds with sprouts. They take several years to bloom this way, but it's an easy way to get more of them. You can also remove suckers around the base of the plant and plant those as well.

I have 3 of these in our landscape and plan on purchasing additional ones. Every morning & evening the hummingbirds come straight to the pretty red flowers and I love to watch the hummingbirds! I have not had any luck in planting the seeds from the pods though.......but I will keep on trying....

I grew up in South Central Texas where red yucca grows "wild". I now live outside Houston and brought one plant with me, giving it a new home in an old tractor tire. Quite a novelty for this area!! My daughter and I have brought South Texas to East Texas and many stop to admire and comment on our yard.

Okay. . . A few years after I planted the first yucca, a friend sent me an entire pod from her yucca. It was summer and I simply sowed most of the seeds in the same tire as my old plant. There was no preparation; just planted those little babies.

I now have bunches of plants and they bloom year-round. Also, I have a fern tree on one side of the tire and a ginger bed on the other. I water the yucca every time I water the other two areas. It always looks wonderful.

Love the red yucca! It grows really well in my sunny, gently sloped part of the yard. More flower stalks are growing as the plant matures. However, I have one that is growing a stalk for the first time and it seems to be infested with small sesame seed sized bugs. I don't know if they are good for the plant or not, but I'm researching that and the appropriate treatment to get rid of the bug if it is harmful. Anyone have any ideas or experience with this?

Overall, its a great plant to add to the landscape. I love that the hummingbirds enjoy visiting it.

I bought a small plant last year in Home depot and could separate it in early spring to get 6 more plants, that much it had grown. Every plant developed a flower spike in early spring!!!! The biggest one is about to bloom every day now and it's only the begin of May. We had floody rains the entire last week and everything was under water. It made the flower spike shoot out like crazy and grow tall. Makes me think, if what is said is true, that this plant doesn't need a lot of water. right now it's standing in the water.

I have grown this for years. At most it sends out a spike or two about 6' long in summer. The rest of the year it's a nondescript grassy plant not especially attractive considering what it is out there for the dry garden. And to flower it does need regular watering in a Med climate.
The bay area also does not have the 90+ temperatures it needs to really flower at it's best. Walnut Creek,Concord,Pleasanton, might be great for it..the urban inner bay area's just not quite warm enough.
One last thing-if it does get some foot-or paw- traffic,it seems to take a very long time to recover from the "flattened look".

I bought this red yucca from monroveia nurseries and it is out standing, it is clump forming the first year and offers many extra plant,also ,bought two other new varities of this plant (lighter in colour but otherwise the same they have not had a chance to give me offsets they stay evergreen and handle cool as well as hot weather,i also bought in o8 for 49,00 two other similar looking plants Green Desert Spoon andblue desert spoon,they really grow great on the barrier islans of n c

Growing this here in Western Arkansas, in raised desert beds and containers, grows fast, flowers regularly through summer and fall until frost.

Red yucca is growing in my garden in Seattle, Washington, but it hasn't bloomed since I moved here two summers ago. Any ideas how to encourage flowering?

I live in Yuma, AZ I have enjoyed watching this grow. It seemed to take forever, but in early spring the center flower grew quickly and very tall. I am going to try to grow more of them by using the seeds. The pods of seeds (none yet on one plant, three on another and one on another) are fun to watch as they grow larger and look like very tiny pumpkins only a brownish tan color.

Red Yucca is a beautiful hardy plant that can take the Texas heat.
It is endemic to Texas and very much loved and used in native gardens.

Even tho this is Drought tolerant, it little extra water in the hottest summer months dosen't hurt it at all, especially in the dryer deserts.

Other common names include the followinig: false red yucca, Texas red yucca, samandoque, coral yucca and hummingbird yucca.

Red yucca, a slow growing evergreen, clump-forming, perennial that grows to 3 feet tall and 3 feet wide (wider under optimum conditions), is a native of the Chihuahuan desert of west Texas and extends into central and south Texas (Rio-Grande area) and northeastern Mexico (Coahuila). It natively grows in gravelly limestone soils with fast drainage and usually inhabits rocky slopes, valley slopes, canyon areas, prairies and mesquite thickets. Red yucca is adaptable to a variety of soils and to most of the eastern USA as well. It is cold hardy to -20° F (USDA Zone 5). In cooler areas, it grows best when placed in a hot spot like a south-facing wall where it can get reflected heat. While it will tolerate partial shade or light shade if the soil has adequate drainage, it blooms best in full sun. It is drought tolerant, but grows better with supplemental irrigation during a long, hot summer. Be sure to not over water it.

Red yucca is not a true yucca at all, but is related to the yucca species. It forms a grass-like mound from a rosette of narrow, hard, long, narrow, pointed blue-green leaves. The arching blades resemble rolled grass and have curly threads along the edge of the blade margins. In the winter, the leaves may become a plum color. Unlike the yuccas, red yucca has no thorns. In its natural setting, deer browse the foliage.

From April through August, the red yucca produces narrow, tubular, inverted bell-shaped, 1.25 inch long rosy-red to salmon-pink blooms on racemes which occur on arching, wand-like, pink 40 to 50" stems. The blooms open from the bottom of the raceme upward. (There is a cream to yellow blooming variety as well). The blooms attract hummingbirds and bees.

The green, ping-pong ball sized, multi-chambered seed pods turn a tannish brown color when dry. The seeds are flat, black and about 9 -10mm long by 6 -7 mm wide. These seeds should be soaked for 24 hours before planting to encourage faster germination. The plant also may be propagated by dividing the offsets from the base of the mother plant.

Red yucca is widely cultivated in arid and semi-arid regions serving as a median plant and/or a roadside plant as well as a landscaping element. It is a great container plant and is a good choice for pool areas and pathways. It may be used as a solitary accent plant, in mass plantings or with various cacti in rock gardens to create a desert-themed landscape. If planting it, be sure that it is not next to plants that need a lot of water. It requires minimal maintenance (removal of spent flower stalks and dead leaf blades) and has no serious pest problems.

If this plant grows well in my area, I haven't found the right spot for it yet. My guess is it needs more water than the dry Nevada desert can supply naturally. I was fool enough to plant Hesperaloe in very dry locations, including one where Penstemon parryi thrives. The Hesperaloe has failed twice now. I'll keep trying, though...

Common English names include Red False Yucca and Red Flower Yucca for this evergreen perennial shrub, which measures 3'x3' and has 6-foot flower stalks.