Posted on by Desert Dweller | David C.

Prepare for a Yucca Explosion

With all our moisture until spring set in to scorch it all, our local yuccas seemed primed to go into full bloom. That they did.

My first year in this house, I only pruned a few of the huge, dead flower stalks off, without a truck to haul them to the dump and also enjoying the interest of “dry arrangements”.

This year, seeing all the new flower stalks forming, I cut off all the old stalks so the better blooming year could shine and knowing I would find a way to haul.

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The large, dead stalks are bold to look at, plus some smaller birds perch on them.

Of course, birds have plenty nearby to perch on. For a garden to look better in less than geologic time, we can do simple, beneficial maintenance practices.

I’m finished with some Yucca elata clumps, their dead stalks bundled.

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One of many vigorous flower stalks that will soon shine.

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All done, looking back to the N.

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I’ve met some hobbyists, a couple architects, and others, all with a belief system that won’t grasp maintenance and pruning. Yet the same often switch and then regard gardens whose staff knows what, why, when, and how.

Have you met any people like that?

Now, to pull all those weeds and mooch kindly ask to borrow someone’s truck for a delivery to the dump!

5/15/17 weather: 88 / 53 / .00

4 Replies to “Prepare for a Yucca Explosion”

  1. That will look awesome once the bloom stalks bloom! Yuccas look great all the time of course, but the extra oomph from the many flowers make them a bit extra special. Good luck with the weeds!

    Flowering is almost there on the backyard yuccas in this post; in front they are 2/3 in bloom. Now, to the weeds…

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  2. I love the idea of a Yucca explosion, your plants look fab! I would expect nothing less.

    Thanks, I had a feeling last winter after constant, unusual moisture…voila!

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  3. I like the look of the old stalks trimmed off. I hate the look of the leaves trimmed off, leaving a bare trunk. The Yucca glauca here are all in full bloom. Y. elata and rostrata are on their way!

    Yucca stalks don’t have the elegance of dry sotol stalks, and it was time to make way for the blooms! Bare trunks turn a rugged plant into something wimpy. Your yuccas sound early, too, but prepare for a moth explosion to go with. Ciao!

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  4. Good job. i get confused by Yuccas – thought they were all monocarpic but Y. rostrata isn’t and it looks as if your Y. elata isn’t. Yes – bad pruning annoys me intensely – bougainvilleas close-cropped with hedge trimmers whilst in full flower, Hesperalose trimmed to a uniform foot high just before flowering – even once saw a row of cacti trimmed to 3ft as a hedge – (and it wasn’t the fence post cactus) – opuntia – cuts right through the pads! Just gets me!!!

    Thanks, even a rental house’s landscape offers help for my sanity! You’re right, though each flower head is with a new head, and these being the sand dune form of Yucca elata, the plants seem to stay smaller but send out runners and clump more. I bet poor maintenance does bother, your examples are too true…there is a difference in proper shearing or pollarding versus what happens in the SW!

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