Identification: Yucca?? Please Identify!

Discussion in 'Outdoor Tropicals' started by firebirdbandit, Feb 21, 2009.

  1. firebirdbandit

    firebirdbandit Member

    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Tallahassee, FL
    In the apartment complex where i'm currently living is this Yucca I believe. Can anyone identify it? I would like to get one just like it when I get a house. Thanks, Brad
     

    Attached Files:

  2. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

    Messages:
    4,776
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    It's either Y. guatamalensis or Y. elephantipes - it's difficult to tell which. If it has a big bulge at the base of the stem that resembles the foot of a pachyderm, it's elephantipes. Otherwise, guatamalensis.

    You may be able to ask your neighbor/manager/gardener for a cutting - it looks like that one has a branch near the base. If they consent, you can start it in your apartment and move it outside when you have a house. Ask for the entire crown of one of the lower shoots, then allow it to dry over the cut area and plant in loose, free-draining sterile soils and water sparingly.
     
  3. K Baron

    K Baron Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,031
    Likes Received:
    2
    Location:
    North Vancouver, B.C., Canada
    You may just want to purchase one, stimulate the economy and feel good about it. These plants can take well to cuttings for the experienced and avid gardener, but on the other hand they easily perish if inadvertent care is initiated.
     
  4. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

    Messages:
    4,776
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    You find them difficult to get going? I have never had that problem with Yucca cuttings.
     
  5. K Baron

    K Baron Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    1,031
    Likes Received:
    2
    Location:
    North Vancouver, B.C., Canada
    Lorax, You live in Ecuador, and not every one on this forum are as talented nor informed as you.... Do you realize how fortunate an avid gardener that you are, to live in a tropical climate after living in Edmonchuck! Send me my immigration papers please! I thought that moving to Victoria in my final years, would be my only hope and last chance to garden vicariously! Do I sound a bit envious? Hmmm, you betcha! Do send us pictures of blooms and of your tropical vegetable gardening , please!
     
  6. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

    Messages:
    4,776
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    K Baron, check out my blog (the link for which is in my signature) to see some of the stuff I grow. And you should know that immigrating to Ecuador is very very very easy. However, I'll give you the caveat lector. I'm not a master gardener or anything, and my experience with Yuccas actually extends back to Edmonchuk. So long as the medium is sterile and the cutting has calloused, there is very little that can go wrong, short of overzealous overwatering.
     
  7. firebirdbandit

    firebirdbandit Member

    Messages:
    23
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Tallahassee, FL
    Any idea on how old that one is? How fast do these grow?
     
  8. lorax

    lorax Rising Contributor 10 Years

    Messages:
    4,776
    Likes Received:
    6
    Location:
    Toronto, Ontario
    In Ecuador, they get about that tall in 4-5 years. I have no idea for Florida.
     
  9. Chungii V

    Chungii V Active Member

    Messages:
    572
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Hervey Bay Australia zone 10/11
    This is a plant that I have taken the biggest cutting I've ever done about 12 foot, multi-trunked at about 4 foot on.... seriously.
    The plant was originally bought for just over $2,000 Australian thanks to wrong care (mainly bad mulching around trunk causing rot) the plant toppled over at ground level, after fighting off and removing termites and bad wood it was without a doubt the biggest cutting I've ever taken :} (the owners should never have doubted me, it's back to full health again)
    They can be rotted very easily until well established if treated incorrectly.
    So both of you are right. Easy to prop and easy to kill :}
     

Share This Page