Beschorneria - Growing Guide

At the entrance to the nursery we have grown a clump of this yucca or agave like plant for 25 years. Beschorneria yuccoides has survived several cold winters untouched and provides a set of spectacular flower spikes each year in June or July.

B. yuccoides is also a Mexican plant but seems, with us, perfectly tolerant of wet winters and some frost. It grows in mountains which may well explain its suitability in warmer UK gardens and even on the western coast of Scotland.

Beschorneria septentrionalis

Beschorneria yuccoides

Beschorneria yuccoides

Beschorneria yuccoides

Beschorneria have radiating rosettes of long pointed grey leaves. The flowers are spectacular on spikes which are 3-5ft tall. The flower spikes have vivid red stems and bracts and the flowers hang from drooping branches in clusters of three or five. They are greenish, fading to cream, and appear ‘fuchsia-like’ because of the colour contrast between the red and green.

Outside beschorneria like well drained loamy soil and in the most warm and sunny spot available. Under glass it is unlikely to flower unless grown in a bed of soil rather than a pot.

Unlike the very similar Fucraea longaeva this plant does not die after producing flowering spikes. It can be propagated by removing offsets in early spring.

B. septentrionalis is still being tried here outside but, so far, it seems just as hardy as B. yuccoides.