Red Yucca

Hesperaloe parviflora

Hills guide picknative · Hill Countrysold locally

Red Yucca is a succulent native to the Texas Hill Country that grows 2–4 ft tall and 4 ft wide. It wants full sun and very low water, and handles caliche and clay soil. Blooms red and yellow in Mar–Jul. Evergreen — it holds its leaves through winter. Good for hummingbirds.

Will it grow in your yard?

Enter your ZIP. The finder checks Red Yucca against your microclimate, then ranks it against your sun, your watering and deer pressure.

From our guide

Village of the Hills

Not a true yucca. Evergreen clump of narrow arching leaves with tall coral-pink flower spikes from spring into fall.

Why it works here

Months of hummingbird bloom, evergreen structure, and total indifference to heat, drought, and limestone.

Watch out

Deer will eat the flower spikes even though they leave the foliage alone. Remove spent stalks at the base.

The facts

10 sources

Type: Succulent
Sun: Full sun (6+ hrs)
Water: Very low
Height: 2–4 ft
Spread: 4 ft
Bloom: Mar–Jul · red, yellow
Foliage: Evergreen
Soil: Takes caliche and clay · recorded on calcareous, dry, limestone, rocky, sand, well drained
Deer: Low — deer eat it; cage or plant where they cannot reach. FOLIAGE ignored but deer strip the flower spikes
Wildlife: Supports hummingbirds

Size, sun, water and foliage from the Village of the Hills guide; the rest resolved across sources.

Where it grows

Recorded in these EPA Level IV ecoregions in the Austin and Hill Country launch area:

Balcones CanyonlandsLlano UpliftEdwards Plateau WoodlandLimestone Cut Plain

58 occurrence records in Central Texas (GBIF).

Can you buy it?

Sold at local nurseries. Confirmed in stock at a Central Texas grower in these sizes:

2.5–6 inch pots1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 15, 30 gallon

From the growers we read so far — a short list, not the whole trade. Call ahead.