Sapphire Skies Beaked Yucca

Sapphire Skies Beaked Yucca

Perhaps the most dramatic focal point one could plant in their garden, Sapphire Skies Beaked Yucca will cause even the most botanically blind among us to drop their jaws! The powdery blue thin leaves radiate from the center to form a perfectly round orb, almost like a freeze frame of a firework exploding! The ‘Sapphire Skies’ variety was selected by the great Sean Hogan of Cistus Nursery from a seed batch for its particularly blue foliage.

In youth it forms a nice little round mound of its gorgeous foliage but in a few years time it will begin forming a trunk and eventually rise to 8-10′ tall! But wait there’s more! It will eventually send out those soft elegant stalks of 4′ tall yucca flowers that whisper to the wind of desert magic and enchantment. While the incredible architecture of this plant may have you dreaming of the sky islands of Arizona and Mexico it is surprisingly frost hardy all the way down to Zone 5! One specimen is even thriving in the Denver Botanical Garden. Its only requirements are good sunlight and relatively well draining soil and, if possible, a slightly alkaline soil. We encourage everyone to plant this incredibly striking and tough plant wherever they need an exclamation point in their garden.

Find more xeriscape plants here!

Latin Name: Yucca rostrata
Site and Soil: Sapphire Skies Yucca likes full to 1/2 day sun and well-drained soil.
Pollination Requirements: Self-fertile
Hardiness: Hardy to -10 F
Size at Maturity: 8-10 ft. in height
Bloom Time: June-July
Pests & Diseases: None that we have seen
USDA Zone: 5b