Red Yucca
Hesperaloe parviflora
A tough desert native with arching evergreen leaves and tall spikes of coral-red tubular flowers from late spring through summer that hummingbirds love, thriving in heat, drought and rocky or limestone soil, in rock gardens or big pots. Sharp drainage is a must, since damp, heavy soil rots it; deer may eat the flowers.
- Mature size
- 4 × 5 ft
- 1.2 × 1.5 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 6a–10b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry
- Blooms
- May–Sep
Red Yucca at its mature size
A mature Red Yucca grows 3 to 5 feet tall and 4 to 6 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: NC State Extension, Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
Through the year
What Red Yucca looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
Winter · Oct–Apr
The leaf fountain alone, no flower stalks.
In leaf · May–Sep
Arching coral-red flower stalks over a fountain of narrow leaves.
Photos
Growing Red Yucca
- Grows well in
- The Plains and Mountain West, the desert Southwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Medium
- Good for
- Specimen, drought tolerant, slopes, and pollinators
- Leaves
- Evergreen
- Native to
- Texas and Northern Mexico
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Red Yucca, that’s about 5 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Red Yucca in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.