Was it a shrub with woody stems, a tall perennial or possibly a late-blooming annual? Were the flowers slender spikes or clusters of small daisies? or something else? Did you take a photograph? Joe

Okay, just informed it's a Yucca filamentosa. I checked picture online. Thanks!!!!

This is the one at my sister's house, which was there when she moved in and is probably about 40 - 50 years old: Closer view: The flowers: The fence is 6ft. They are slow growers so it obviously took decades to get this size but it is gorgeous. We had no idea what it was when she first looked at the house in the spring before she moved in because the flowers were huge doubles and we just haven't seen anything like this planted up here, at least in any obvious spot. I had to go to the Name That Plant forum to ID what the heck it was! LOL And this one is a spring bloomer, unlike the hardier types that tend to bloom in the fall. But now that the climate has changed over the past 20 years or so, we're seeing more crape myrtles and other more commonly "southern" plants here. She lives in Delaware County, PA which was listed as Zone 7 back in the 1990 update of the hardiness zones. The leaves have gotten some tip damage the past couple years, but this thing has seen much colder winters than the last few (although perhaps the previous owner protected it in those instances, plus it was backing up against that neighbor's garage before my sister and her DH put the fence up).

It's a bromeliad and looks like an Aechmea fasciata.