Rancho Tissue Technologies Expands Yucca Selection
September 23, 2025 | 3 min to read
Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., marks the expansion of Rancho Tissue Technologies with an impressive lineup of ten tissue-cultured yuccas. Founder Heather Hunter May highlights the unique colors and disease-free quality of these plants, including Yucca rostrata 'Rancho Blue' with its striking blue foliage and Yucca pallida, a deer-resistant variety. Operating since 1987, RTT is poised to produce up to 4 million plants annually from its state-of-the-art lab. For more details, visit www.ranchotissue.com.
Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. – Rancho Tissue Technologies is pleased to announce the expansion of its tissue-cultured Yucca lineup to a total of ten varieties.
“We are excited to be offering these unique and colorful yuccas to the industry,” says Heather Hunter May, founder and owner. “All are produced in our state-of-the-art tissue culture lab to ensure true-to-type coloration, consistent form, and disease-free planting stock.”
Among the highlights of the collection are:
Yucca rostrata ‘Rancho Blue’ is an exclusive Rancho Tissue selection chosen for its exceptionally vivid powder-blue foliage, even more intense than traditional rostrata forms. With a compact habit in youth and a statuesque silhouette as it matures, it develops into a single-trunked specimen reaching 12–15 feet tall, topped by a dense, symmetrical crown of slightly stiff blue leaves with light yellow margins. Its refined structure, showstopping color, and cold-hardiness make it a premier choice for architectural planting, modern landscapes, and xeriscape design. Cold hardy to 10°F once established, provided soil is well-drained.
Yucca rostrata ‘Sapphire Skies’ is a refined, brilliantly colored selection of one of the most elegant trunk-forming yuccas. This cultivar was chosen for its consistently vibrant, powdery blue-gray foliage, which radiates from a tight central rosette atop a slender trunk that slowly develops over time. Each leaf is narrow and finely tapered, giving the plant a strikingly architectural appearance. Unlike some Yuccas, ‘Sapphire Skies’ has a softer presence—ideal for design-focused xeriscapes, modern gardens, or container planting. With age, it forms a single trunk 10-15 feet tall, eventually producing creamy white flowers on tall spikes in early summer. Cold hardy to 10°F once established, provided soil is well-drained.
Yucca pallida (Pale Leaf Yucca) is a splendid, deer-resistant selection that makes a great garden plant, forming short 20″ tall x 30″ wide single rosettes. The wide and slightly twisted powder-blue leaves with very pale yellow edging are somewhat stiff but not stiff as Yucca torreyi. When mature, its clumps are topped with 3′ tall spikes holding white bell-shaped flowers – a hummingbird favorite. Hardy to 0°F once established.
About Rancho Tissue Technologies
Rancho Tissue Technologies (RTT) is the largest producer of tissue-cultured succulents in the U.S. and potentially worldwide. Established in 1987, RTT’s cutting edge, environmentally controlled laboratory and 40,000-square-foot greenhouse is designed to produce up to 4 million plants per year and offer a multitude of services, including multiplication of hard to propagate plants, development of new and improved cultivars, virus eradication through heat-treatment and meristemming, and custom contract growing. For more information, visit www.ranchotissue.com.