{"id":3890,"date":"2023-01-30T07:18:53","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T15:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3890"},"modified":"2023-01-30T07:18:53","modified_gmt":"2023-01-30T15:18:53","slug":"yucky-yucca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/yucky-yucca\/","title":{"rendered":"Yucky Yucca"},"content":{"rendered":"

It is rare that I see red about something green, but I am having an angry moment about yucca.\u00a0 Not all yucca, mind you\u2014there are 40 or 50 species of yucca in the larger agave family\u2014but Yucca filamentosa.\u00a0 I suppose that Yucca filamentosa, sometimes called \u201cAdam\u2019s Needle\u201d, is loved in some places and tolerated in others, but I don\u2019t want it in my garden.<\/p>\n

I am sure you have seen the plants.\u00a0 Yucca filamentosa is a shrubby specimen that bursts forth from the earth in a rosette of long, sword-like leaves with slender \u201cthreads\u201d or filaments curling from the edges.\u00a0 The rosettes can be up to two feet or more across on mature yuccas and each clump is about a foot high.\u00a0 In early summer flower stalks sprout, rising four or five feet above the plant.\u00a0 The white, bell-shaped flowers are clustered at the tops of the stalks, the better to attract the moths that pollinate them.<\/p>\n

\"Yucca<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Despite my dislike of yuccas, even I have to admit that the flowers are impressive and smell delicious.\u00a0 However, they fade, as flowers always do, and leave only the persistent, evergreen leaves.\u00a0 While the moths have been busy with the flowers above the ground, the plants have gone about the business of reproducing, which they do with enthusiasm.\u00a0 Underground tuberous roots spread readily, producing an unending supply of new plants, which is why it is hard to find just one yucca.<\/p>\n

Several years ago I went by an old cemetery that was engulfed in a sea of yucca plants, which happily cascaded down the hillside that bounded the property.\u00a0 Clearly someone\u2014probably with the best of intentions\u2014memorialized a loved one by planting a yucca at a gravesite.\u00a0 The plant then reproduced endlessly, thereby creating the yucca tsunami that I saw.<\/p>\n

For years, I was afflicted with yucca in my front yard.\u00a0 Each year I would amputate the dead parts in the hopes of discouraging my yucca\u2019s expansionist tendencies.\u00a0 It never worked.\u00a0 Finally, about 18 months ago, when the clump of yucca had grown offensively large, I decided to remove it.\u00a0 The process involved digging a hole about three feet wide and two feet deep and removing all of the tubers, which filled up an entire large lawn and leaf bag.\u00a0 The work was hot, tiring and seemingly unending, but I finally exorcized the yucca and its offspring.\u00a0 To celebrate, I planted a rose in the newly vacant space.<\/p>\n

I have not missed the yucca for a single moment and reveled in the fact that it was gone for good.<\/p>\n

I should not have reveled, because the yucca is back.\u00a0 I went out the other day in search of snowdrops and noticed that three young yuccas had sprouted up around the rose. \u00a0I did not notice them last fall, but that is probably because the press of business took precedence over garden clean-up.<\/p>\n

Clearly there were yucca tubers or tuber fragments that I overlooked on my search and destroy mission.\u00a0 Obeying the biological imperative, they recovered and started growing.\u00a0 Now they have gained enough strength to establish an above-ground foothold.\u00a0 This situation is intolerable.<\/p>\n

I have not tested the soil around these invaders to see if I can get a garden fork into it, but I will do so this coming weekend.\u00a0 If there is any way that I can chisel out those yuccas now, I am going to do it.\u00a0 Waiting until spring may be necessary, but I hope not, because yuccas, like death and taxes, don\u2019t wait.\u00a0 I refuse to sacrifice my new rose on an altar of yucca.<\/p>\n

Some people probably love yucca for its sculptural quality, ease of culture and the fact that it will grow just about anywhere that isn\u2019t swampy. With spreading root systems, the plants are also good erosion controllers.\u00a0 Yucca lovers are welcome to all the Yucca filamentosa that they can accommodate in their gardens.\u00a0 If I knew individuals of that ilk, I would send them the rogue plants now sprouting in my front yard.<\/p>\n

If the ground is not frozen hard, I will have to check the supply of lawn and leaf bags, because yucca is like the iceberg that struck the Titanic\u2014the visible parts are large, but the invisible parts are enormous enough to sink the unsuspecting gardener.\u00a0 I suspect that I will be amazed at the progress the tubers have made since my marathon yucca-removal effort 18 months ago.<\/p>\n

Gardening is mostly a labor of love, but sometimes it has to be a labor of yucca.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is rare that I see red about something green, but I am having an angry moment about yucca.\u00a0 Not all yucca, mind you\u2014there are 40 or 50 species of yucca in the larger agave family\u2014but Yucca filamentosa.\u00a0 I suppose that Yucca filamentosa, sometimes called \u201cAdam\u2019s Needle\u201d, is loved in some places and tolerated in … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,2,3,1,5],"tags":[2833,2811,209,154,448,827,2831,2832],"class_list":["post-3890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","category-uncategorized","category-winter","tag-agave-family","tag-evergreen-perennials","tag-fragrant-flowers","tag-invasive-plants","tag-native-plants","tag-pollinator-plants","tag-yucca","tag-yucca-filamentosa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3892,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3890\/revisions\/3892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}