A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Please help my distressed yucca!

I wonder if anyone can advise me on sorting out a distressed yucca.
I have a number of questions but I'd like to give a little background first.
This plant was growing healthily in my late Father-in-law's living room until he moved to smaller apartment just before he died. Not having space indoors, he put it out on a very narrow balcony for a few weeks during which time we had an unusually cold spell with a good deal of high wind.
By the time I got it, it was ragged with scores of dead leaves, which I pruned away, denuding the thing rather, but it perked up... it even bloomed!

Originally, he got this plant about 5 years ago from his cousin who runs a business supplying pot plants to company offices, hotel lobbies and the like... or used to run, before the tsunami washed it all away. The brown pot you see in the picture is just a disguise for its original, much smaller pot, and it's not clear what the growing medium is. Given the size of the thing, I'd say it's desperately in need of repotting, and actually splitting into more than one pot... I reckon there are at least 3 separate plants in there.
So my first question has to be about repotting and possibly splitting.

Then there's the sheer height of the thing. There's nowhere to put it outside. The highest growth comes from 3 branches (?) off the biggest, central trunk (?) and these are the most seriously denuded. I'm stumped (no pun intended) as to what to do about it.... could I clip these upper branches down to a more manageable height?

My other concern is about timing; Japan is now entering a very humid rainy season which will be followed by an intense period of baking, humid hell on earth. The thing is, I'm not sure this plant can survive until next spring before it gets to stretch its roots a bit... I'm not even sure I will survive.

So there you have it... I would really appreciate some guidance or suggestions because this could be a lovely plant or plants. I'm including an image of one of the flowers... I'd never seen a yucca in bloom before and was amazed at how lovely the blooms are and what an incredibly strong scent they have, easily overpowering every other odour in a 20' radius.
Thanks

This is a very lovely plant. It does not look like any yuccas I have ever seen. And I am surrounded by yuccas in bloom right now.
Although I have no idea what it actually is (and I just did a quick search for ideas) I can tell from your picture that it can definitely be trimmed to a more easily managed size. If you look at how it was cut before and new growth started off of the trunk you will see what you will get after the next cutting. I would take off the main trunk to whatever level you would like to begin again. Just that one for now so as not to shock the complete plant. And take off any deadened growth around the rest of and watch to see how it goes. At the same time you can un-pot it and see how easily divide-able it really is under that soil.
If you leave it in that window be sure to turn it every few days to help it get more even light. I would still try it outside for a bit. You may find it thrives on baking, humid hell on earth. I don't and that is why I choose to live in a desert. But some plants do.
Good luck!

Thank you Tina
If the smell from your yucca blooms is anything like this one, you must be in heaven right now. I will try to find out if this actually is a yucca or some local/Asian cousin, though it does look a lot more like imported yuccas as I remember them from my youth in England than the varieties I've been able to find on the web from your part of the world.

Anyway, I feel a little more confident now about tackling... whatever it is. Mind you, taking it out through the window onto the balcony for de-potting should be a lot of fun... even more so than when we brought it home in our Toyota Spacio.


I'm a bit confused about this. You don't mean saw through the main trunk do you... just trim its branches, yes?

Somebody told me that yucca branches can be cut, rooted and grown as cane-yuccas. It sounds a bit far-fetched to me.

No, I actually do mean saw through the main trunk. Look at how the other ones have been cut and see how, after cutting, two side shoots grew out and up from just below the cut. If this were my plant, I would actually cut the fattest main trunk below the level of the secondary trunk cut shown in the picture. By about 6-8 inches (the length of your hand?) 18 centimeters or so?
But you can cut it any where it is handiest or most aesthetically appealing to you.

Yes this is actually easier than you would think. If people do not care for the bare trunk look, they often cut the tops of the plants and pot them into the same pot to cover that trunk.

That looks like a dracaena to me - I had a few many many years ago, but they never bloomed. That flower is gorgeous!!!

I found pictures here in a google search of dracaena flowers - wish mine had had some before I had to get rid of them in a move across country.

dracaena flowers

Yes, yes... you're right! Looking at the Google images, that's exactly how mine bloomed (see below). Thank you for identifying it for me.


Well, as you can see, we've correctly identified it as a dracaena... but as it seems to grow pretty much the same way as a yucca, I will take your advice on that main trunk.

Can you elaborate on the potting method? Is there a knack to getting them to root?
Presumably they can be potted individually.

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Here is how to take a cutting of your plant to root it.
It really is quite simple. And how nurseries mass produce plants for sale.

Glad to help!

I have taken cuttings of my large dracaenas and simply potted them up in regular potting soil, making sure that about 4 or so inches was down into the soil - a few more inches would be fine too. Most have taken root, though a few did not. The very first large ones I got were being thrown out by a library many years ago when we were living in Reno, Nevada. The library had a large atrium, but the plants got too tall for their liking. I was on a field trip there with my nursery school class, when they were about to dipsose of numerous long and healthy pieces. I took 5 very long cuttings back with me in the school bus! They all thought I was nuts, but I just could not let these "future" plants get thrown in the garbage.

Every piece took root, and I had them growing in my apartment there for the 7 years we lived there. When they got too tall and leggy for my taste, I simply cut them back and stuck the cut piece back into the soil. It does take a while for new growth to sprout from the mother plant, and for the roots to form in the cuttings, but eventually they mostly worked well for me.

Good luck with your gorgeous plant!

Thank you both for all your help and suggestions. I'll take a trip to the garden centre on Saturday morning... get some rooting hormone powder and a really big bag of that chunky, sandy compost mixer and show this here triffid who's da boss!