Yucca

It was quite charming at first to discover yucca in the garden. Beyond seeing them inside in pots I had no experience with them growing outside.

Yucca as “Palm Tree”

We have one Yucca that must have been put outside in a pot near the letter box and the trash cans and then simply forgotten. When I got around to cleaning up that corner of the garden and taking off all the ivy I discovered that this big “palm tree” was actually growing out of a wooden planter somehow.

We clean it up every spring by taking off the lowest leaves to protect our eyesight going to the letterbox. We wash the accumulated dust and dirt off the leaves – which always results in a few cuts on the hands: the leaves don’t only end in needle-sharp spines, their edges are also very sharp. And we take off trunks that begin to lean over too far.

This Yucca is adding a nice mediterranean touch to the entry. It’s doing great and growing ever taller but it has never flowered.

Blooming Yucca gloriosa

The other Yucca in the garden was a giant bush. It looked health and bloomed wonderfully for about ten days in September and March after we moved here. After that it did not bloom at all anymore but grew dirty and dried-up looking in the hot summers that followed. Since it had been planted next to the walkway every time we walked past or wanted to work in the part of the garden we’d get poked in the leg by the sharp spines on the end of the leaves. So altogether a less than agreeable plant – which is why we had the gardener take it out with the digger and we haven’t missed it at all.