Yucca filamentosa × pallida Silver Anniversary

Yucca filamentosa × pallida Silver Anniversary is distinguished by its very neat blue-grey foliage and its spring flowering borne on tall burgundy scapes. This compact yet vigorous perennial structures dry beds, rockeries, and large pots. It requires little water and boasts excellent hardiness. This is a reliable plant that will add texture and architectural interest to the garden all year round, even in winter.

Belonging to the Asparagaceae family, Silver Anniversary is a hybrid between Yucca filamentosa (native to the sands and heathlands of the southeastern United States) and Y. pallida (endemic to the limestone prairies of north-central Texas). It was developed in the U.S.A. by Tony Avent (Plant Delights/JLBG) and introduced in 2018; this yucca combines the vigour and suckering ability of its first parent with the powdery blue hue of the second.
It is a stemless perennial plant that forms a clump of compact rosettes and spreads through the production of suckers over time; its growth is rather rapid for a yucca. In the ground, it will reach approximately 60 cm in height (for the foliage) with a spread of 1.20 m. Mature specimens can form large cushions 1.50 m tall and 1 m wide. The evergreen, powdery blue-grey leaves are initially slightly curved, becoming straighter with age; fine filaments may appear on their margins. Flowering occurs from late May to June-July, depending on the climate. The inflorescence, a panicle 75 cm to 1 m tall, rises above the foliage, borne on a purplish scape 1.80 m to 2.10 m high. The panicle bears numerous large, slightly fragrant, cream-white campanulate flowers; each flower lasts up to 4 days and the inflorescence lasts approximately one month.

This Silver Anniversary yucca has excellent hardiness: -20 °C minimum, even down to -23 to -26 °C in very dry soil; it tolerates humid heat, drought once established, and sea spray. This plant is perfect for structuring a large rockery, or for occupying the centre of an exotic, "desert"-style bed. It can be planted as a specimen or associated on a dry slope with puyas, agaves and other dasylirions. In a contemporary garden, in well drained soil, pair it with pink Delosperma and groundcover Sedums to accentuate its blue foliage.

North American yuccas maintain a unique bond with moths of the Tegeticula genus, which ensure their pollination. The saponin-rich roots of Y. filamentosa were traditionally used as soap or to stun fish. In the past, it was locally considered a "Pride of India" plant.