Spanish dagger

Although their stiff evergreen rosettes are part of the scene in hot dry Central and North American scrublands, yuccas are hardier than they appear, and only fail in cold exposed inland positions, where they are better grown as container plants. Otherwise they are handsome architectural foliage plants for dry sunny borders and gardens by the sea. The Spanish dagger makes an impressive thick-stemmed plant, rarely branching and crowned with a thick clump of sharp-pointed leaves. Its eye-catching flower-spikes can reach 2.1m (7ft) high. The Royal Horticultural Society has given it its Award of Garden Merit (AGM).