Bright and Spiky for Foliage Follow-up

Today is Foliage Follow-up when Pam at Digging hosts blogger posts on foliage in our gardens the day after Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

Fall is the best time to get new plants in the ground and an opportunity to move plants that aren't working.  That's just what we did yesterday by replacing an existing Dasylerion wheeleri with this new Yucca filamentosa 'Bright Edge'.  The change certainly brightened up the mailbox strip.

D. Wheeleri, with its sphereical form of spiky foliage. is a favorite of mine but this one didn't work here.  It blended in too much, didn't grow well, and never looked quite right so it's been relocated to the back yard.

Here's the 'before' with the D. Wheeleri in the left foreground.

Now the "after' with the new Yucca filamentosa 'Bright Edge' in place.

Yucca filamentosa 'Bright Edge' is similar to the existing Yucca filamentosa 'Color Guard'  with thinner leaves and the reverse variegation showing more green which which works well with existing plants like the Golden Barrel cactus (Echinocactus grunsonii) without being too much the same.

The Color Guard yuccas planted last spring have grown more than expected this summer and brighten both sides of the driveway and across the front adding spots of color when the salvias are not blooming.  The new Y. filamentosa is in the back right across the driveway.

The 'Color Guard' yuccas continue on the other side of the driveway where they are joined with a silvery agave, soft leaf yucca, another golden barrel cactus, and Texas native purple prickly pear cactus (Opuntia macrocentra Santa-rita 'Tubac').  Of course all these selections were designed to coordinate with the yellow street sign.  Do you think the city would notice if I repainted the pole to a creamy yellow?

Here's a better look the purple hue of the prickly pear which has become more intense as a cool front passed through this week.

These changes gave me the chance to try out my new wide-angle lens.  Previously it been a challenge to get an overall view of the yard since I had to break it into three photos each time.  With the new lens I can get more in the picture.

Here's the front hellstrip showing how the new yucca on the left fits in.  I could step back farther into the neighbor's yard, but the details get smaller. You can always click on a photo to enlarge it.
 

For more blog posts highlighting foliage in their gardens, check out the links in the comments section of Pam's blog Digging.