Yucca Tree

Hi People,

I moved into my current property about 2 years ago and they have, what i believe is, a yucca tree. It was a good height before but recently i think it is getting a little bit to big for my liking and it has is grown extremely fast over them two years.

What i would like to know is how can i shorten it, or prune it to stop it getting any taller than it already is without killing it. I'm not much of a gardener and really don't know what to do and all my friends are not to sure about these. I have attached a few pictures for your recommendations

Thanks






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Chris, first of all its not a Yucca, its Cordyline australis, looks similar and is related but not a Yucca.

You can cut them down to almost any height you like at this time of the year, it will shoot out all over the stem with new shoots that are best thinned to two or three.

As its got two stems I think I would cut one this year and the other next year.

Just so its not such a shock to the plant.

 

Hi Pete,

Thanks for your reply.

So do i just cut the stem with a saw and it will be ok? Don't have to do anything else, apart from limit the stems that grow from the top?

Thanks

 

You can just cut through it with a saw, yes.

You will be amazed how easy the stems are to saw through.

I can never understand how such a soft stem can support such a large plant, but they do.

 

Thanks pete, will cut it this weekend

 

Sorry to butt in, but I have what I call a Yucca Tree in my garden. It is about 10/12 ft. tall and bears the most beautiful flower spikes, similar to the lower growing Yucca Filimentosa (spelling). My problem is what do I do about the enormous flowering spikes (8 this year and 5 last year). Removing them would be a ladder job and gropping around amongst all the other spikey 'leaves'.

Would it be OK to leave them to eventually die off naturally - as in the wild? If it flowers again next year I will have a mass of large, dead flowering spikes which will spoil the tree. All advice gratefully received.

 

First off Trader, I would love to have a yucca 10-12ft high, what kind is it?
A picture would be nice.

You can leave the old flower stalks attached but they do start to look bad after a while as they take a couple of years to drop off naturally, I have a similar problem with cordylines, I know they are not as spikey as yucca, but they are about 18ft tall.

I just leave them, its not worth risking your life for.:D