The Yucca plant is a widely popular drought tolerant and xeriscape gardens. Yucca plants are drought tolerant, thus don’t require much water after establishment. Landscaping with Yuccas are great to add a southwest flare to your gardens. These are versatile plants that provide evergreen color and a unique leaf option for your landscape.
Yucca will rarely run into any pest problems, Although on rare occasions you may find scale or mealy bugs on your yucca. To treat for mealy bugs you will need to spray with an approved insecticide for the yuccas, such as neem oil.
Growing Yuccas
Yucca can grow in any type of soil you plant it in. Whether the soil has a low pH or high pH, sand or clay soils. The Yucca plant will thrive in just about anything soil and condition. Excellent for both indoor and outdoors growing in planters. Yuccas are an easy to care for plant.
The size of yucca plants varies greatly, with some varieties growing over 20 feet tall. There are over 40 species of Yucca plants. Listed below are a few more notable Yuccas.
- Soapweed – Grows in dry, rocky soils throughout the Great Plains and very common in short grass prairies and desert grasslands. The crushed roots of soapweed yucca produces a lather that makes a good soap or shampoo. The dried leaves of Soapweed yucca can be woven into baskets, mats, or sandals.
- Banana Yucca -Most yuccas have dry hard fruits, but the fruits of banana yucca are fleshy and succulent. They look roughly like short fat green bananas. The roots are also used to produce soap.
- Mountain yucca – Larger and often-cultivated yucca. It is branched as high as 6 ft. above the base and has a total height of up to 17 ft. Leaves, about 2 ft. long, are borne up to the base of the flowering stem. Large, whitish flowers appear in a large cluster atop the short flowering stem.
- Yucca Rostrata – Striking, narrow, stiff, baby blue leaves are shorter than others of the species and form a dense crown atop an elegant single trunk. Use as a bold architectural element in containers or waterwise borders. A showy spike of white flowers emerges at maturity.
- Yucca Color Guard – Evergreen, slightly arching, sword shaped, striped foliage provides great visual interest. Spires of fragrant, white blooms in summer. Ideal as an accent or container specimen, or used in mass plantings. Tolerant of wind, heat, humidity, and drought.
Maintaining Yuccas
Prune and Plant Yuccas is fairly simple. Usually during the spring season, as the older leaves die on a mature yucca plant. Trim the dead leaves away, thus helping the rest of the plant to allow newer leaves to grow. When caring for yucca plants, wear gloves to protect your hands from the sharp leaves. Prune back the flower stalk when Yuccas has stopped flowering and the fruit has appeared, trimming the stalk to ground.
