Yukka - outdoors?
 

Hi there,

I have a Yukka (a houseplant) which has grown too large for my house
(over 6 foot tall). Can it be hardened off and planted outside - to
stay outside over winter? I live in West Central Scotland and get
maybe three or four "hard" frosts a year.

Cheers

Lord0

Yukka - outdoors?
 

On 18 Mar 2007 07:01:49 -0700, "Lord0" wrote:

Hi there,

I have a Yukka (a houseplant) which has grown too large for my house
(over 6 foot tall). Can it be hardened off and planted outside - to
stay outside over winter? I live in West Central Scotland and get
maybe three or four "hard" frosts a year.

Cheers

Lord0

Yes and no!

Yukka will survive in a frost free part of the garden but your hard
frosts will be very difficult to avoid.

Steve

Yukka - outdoors?
 

On 18 Mar 2007 07:01:49 -0700, "Lord0" wrote:

Hi there,

I have a Yukka (a houseplant) which has grown too large for my house
(over 6 foot tall). Can it be hardened off and planted outside - to
stay outside over winter? I live in West Central Scotland and get
maybe three or four "hard" frosts a year.

Cheers

Lord0

There are many types of Yucca. Some, such as Gloriosa, Filamentosa or
Whipplei are fairly hardy, but others are not. I suspect yours, being
a houseplant, is one of the latter.

But they grow easily from 'cuttings' AIUI. Decapitate yours, as far
down from the top as you like, leave the cut end open to the air for a
few days to dry and callous over, and then pot it up in damp, gritty,
open compost and keep it warm and it should root in a few weeks, and
lo! a new plant. The tall stump will send out shoots at the top, so
you end up with two for the price of one. You could even cut the stump
into short sections, say 12" or so long, and pot them up individually
(making sure you get them the right way up), and you will be overrun
by them! Several years ago, 'logs' (short sections of bare stem) of a
particular yucca (can't remember which, possibly Y. elephantipes) were
popular in gift shops etc. Plant them and they miraculously sprang
into growth.


--
Chris

E-mail: christopher[dot]hogg[at]virgin[dot]net

Yukka - outdoors?
 

On 19 Mar, 20:30, Chris Hogg wrote:
But they grow easily from 'cuttings' AIUI. Decapitate yours, as far
down from the top as you like, leave the cut end open to the air for a
few days to dry and callous over, and then pot it up in damp, gritty,
open compost and keep it warm and it should root in a few weeks, and
lo! a new plant. The tall stump will send out shoots at the top, so
you end up with two for the price of one. You could even cut the stump
into short sections, say 12" or so long, and pot them up individually
(making sure you get them the right way up), and you will be overrun
by them! Several years ago, 'logs' (short sections of bare stem) of a
particular yucca (can't remember which, possibly Y. elephantipes) were
popular in gift shops etc. Plant them and they miraculously sprang
into growth.

Too right! I've cried a few times over the years, especially when one
of my dogs as a puppy spent most of the night chewing on a very very
old yukka, which had a stem the size of my leg. I had found it in a
skip about 10 years previous and it had became an old friend. I chop
the top (it was one stem long about 7 metres, curling inches from the
ceiling, like a pig's tail) and put it in a rubber pot, without the
drying in open air bit, just potted it, watered it and it's now, 2
years on, growing beautifully. Another yukka got decapitated when we
moved house - from the main stem 3 shoots came out - now it's in the
verandah, a cold place in winter, but it had outgrown the house. I
just told it it's the verandah or outside, so it just had to get used
to it. Now I've got 3 yukka in the cold verandah, winter and summer
and they all just got used to it.

How can you tell which variety one has? I looked at 2 and they are so
so similar. Without flowers and identical leaves, I just can't tell.