Viegener wrote:I'm pretty sure I have Uucca aloifolia marginata too — are the leaves very stiff, and are the tips very sharp? If so, put it in an untrafficked spot!!
Yes they are Viegener, the leaves are similar to my rigida in stiffness and the terminal points are very sharp. I had it placed in an area that would not see much foot traffic where it has room to grow- way in the back close to a rock ledge I had made to separate one of the granite areas from the grass area:
- yucca placement.jpg (67.76 KiB) Viewed 2015 times
(not sure what I was thinking bringing in the massive 3200lb rock in this picture but it is growing on me)
I am always confused with yuccas. I have had one for years that was sold to me as a rigida. It has grown like a weed (even under the partial shade of an oak which I now need to remove) and has three large thick branches.
- larger yucca.jpg (308.97 KiB) Viewed 2015 times
Many call this a spanish dagger but I have seen various names associated with this (dagger) term- rigida, gloriosa, treculeana, faxoniana..... To make matters more confusing for me, I see the term spanish dagger often interchanged with the term spanish bayonet which also has a whole slew of names associated with it.
I always thought that the bayonet has the more narrow leaves and grew on a skinny trunk and threw out heads at all angles but pretty sure I am confused on this as well.
I tried figuring out what I had a couple years back but gave up. I think the closest guess I came up with was grandiflora (yes, another one people just call dagger) due to the color of the leaf, growth and massive (I mean massive) white bloom. I just decided to enjoy it and not care what it was I was enjoying...
I purchased a blue yucca rigida (a real rigida) for my project but it is not looking too blue nor too happy after sitting out for almost 3 weeks waiting for planting. The leaves were a lovely pale blue but I picked this specific one for its curved trunk (yes, I like the Charlie brown Christmas tree). Only time will tell if this will survive the abuse I put it through:
- blue yucca rigida.jpg (225.25 KiB) Viewed 2015 times
While I feel fairly comfortable with the blue rigida and completely at ease with the yucca aloifolia marginata being labeled correctly given the source of purchase, I have no idea what else I own. Take for example the other variegated yucca I purchased from a local garden store a month ago for my project. This was labeled as a spanish dagger, nothing more. I can tell the leaves are much wider than my aloifolia but I would like to know what exactly I have. I hate nicknames on things I am buying, I want actual genus/species/ssp names- no more 'dagger' or 'bayonet'! It supposedly gets a nice trunk like my rigida but I guess I won't know until it grows? Here is a side by side of the two. The broader leaf yucca is a little larger (not much) than the aloifolia.
- yucca comparison.jpg (76.59 KiB) Viewed 2015 times
tl;dr: yuccas confuse me!
