Hesperaloe parviflora Rubra - Red Yucca

The Hesperaloe parviflora Rubra, sometimes called Red Yucca, is one of the most beautiful plants in the Agave family and one of the easiest to acclimate in gardens. It grows in dense rosettes, composed of long, evergreen, slender leaves, beautifully tinged with purple. From the centre of the rosettes emerges a long, graceful flower spike in summer, loaded with small, tubular flowers in a vibrant salmon red, which contrasts with the somewhat austere appearance of the rosettes. In New Mexico and Arizona, this extremely drought-resistant perennial is commonly used by landscape professionals as a large ground cover to replace the demanding lawn. Surprisingly, this very exotic-looking Hesperaloe is a plant of extreme climates, capable of withstanding our wet and cold winters and snow in well-drained soil. A must have to discover!

Native to the Chihuahua desert, spanning from Texas to Mexico, reaching up to the Texas mountains, which regularly experience freezing temperatures and snow in winter, and arid summers, the Hesperaloe parviflora is a plant adapted to extreme weather conditions. Yet it is an elegant and generous plant, with the ability to bloom under scorching heat, without water, as if it were unaffected by its surroundings. The 'Rubra' variety is distinguished by its purple-tinged leaves. This herbaceous succulent plant has rhizomes capable of producing suckers, but it lacks aerial stems. It forms a basal rosette, 40 to 60 cm (15.7 to 23.6 in) high and at least 60 m (196 ft 11 in) wide, expanding laterally over the years to form a thick ground cover. The pointed leaves are evergreen, narrow, linear, and rigid, shaped like gutters, with prickly tips and twisted filaments along the edges. The spectacular flowering occurs from June to August. A branched flower spike, 1.20m (3 ft 11 in) high, slightly arched at the ends, emerges from each rosette. It carries numerous small, trailing tubular flowers in a beautiful shade of salmon red to coral. This highly nectar-rich and nectariferous flowering attracts many pollinating insects. The plant is hardy down to -15°C (5 °F) in well-drained soil, even more so in dry soil during winter.

The Hesperaloe parviflora Rubra is a unique plant for its remarkable architectural silhouette and robustness. It is perfect for rocky or sandy gardens, where soil is scarce, and ideal for creating large flowered borders throughout the summer, structuring a large rockery or exotic bed, or brilliantly occupying a difficult area of the garden. It can be planted alone alongside ground-covering plants (Teucrium, Thymus, Sedum, Sempervivum) or combined on a dry slope with small, dry-soil shrubs (Hertia cheirifolia, Hypericum olympicum), light grasses (Stipa tenuissima or barbata), Agave americana, prickly pear, giant fennel, and quite hardy candelabra cacti (Cleistocactus strausii, Cylindropuntia imbricata) - all equally hardy and undemanding. Highly floriferous plants like Gaura, Nepeta racemosa, or the indestructible Erigeron karvinskianus will accompany its flowering throughout the summer.