John & Maria's Garden Pages

Yucca stripping for pleasure and profit

I stripped my Yucca yesterday.  It's a big Yucca gloriosa 'Variegata' that I've grown for nearly twenty five years.  Normally, when they flower, the old growing point splits into two or more branches which then grow on the produce the next set of flower spikes.  They also sucker from the rootstock and the end result can be a dense thicket of - admittedly attractive - yellow edged rosettes.  In a small garden that way nightmares lie.

So every flowering I've ruthlessly eliminated the suckers and the end result has been a multi branched small tree that currently stands about 9ft / 2.70m tall.

Here's how it looked on Sunday morning:

As the apical rosettes grow the older leaves die off, leaving an untidy mess.  In theory they're naturally shed by the plant.  That might be true in hotter climates but here in damp cool Plymouth they cling on.  Which brings me to the stripping.

It's pretty simple really.  All you need is stout gloves and a sharp knife.  Oh, and eye protection.  The spikes on the end of the leaves are sharp.  Most of the oldest leaves come cleanly away from the branches with a sharp tug.  For the newer ones you may need to cut them away close to the trunks.  With a specimen like mine you'll also need to delve between the branches to get right into the heart of the plant. Hence the gloves and eye protection.  But the end result is very satisfying.

Though it does leave a lot of waste.  Too tough to compost easily and too spongy to shred at home it's now in the garden waste bin, ready for April's collection.

As well as opening up the branching structure that makes such it an enticing plant  it also lightens the load on the branches.  When (not if) the south-westerly gales blow through the plant Yucca is far more secure against windrock.