I am in yucca heaven. I don't know what they do out there all winter under their skirts of dead leaves, but as I was clearing away all the dead stuff at the bottom new babies appeared everywhere! I got them out, dug up a few other giants that were wearing huge dead skirts, and then pondered placement and transplant. They're pretty sturdy and some have beautiful flowers from time to time. I'm not sure the differences in variety-but my New Orleans yuccas never flowered like these do. I have one that flowers right outside my kitchen window and another that flowers down in the point. I transplanted one to what has now become the terrasse rose garden. That was 7 years ago, and it is now higher that the bordering wall. My yuccas have been the foundation to my gardening ever since I bought the Chatette. My approach has been "use what you have" and then if you need something new or different go and get it.
That's why you will see yuccas all around the Chatette. They seem to be happy just about anywhere. They protect flowers and the ground cover that sneaks in and they are easy to work around when you're cutting the grass. This season produced close to 20 babies and 5 big ones that needed to be transplanted. Even though I started yesterday in ear muffs, gloves and a muffler, by the afternoon it was shorts and a t-shirt so all my yuccas had found new homes by the end of the day. My friend Stuart had put a duck pond out in the middle of the yard surrounded by stone. It had been buried by soil and weeds and was NOT "très jolie", as they say around here. It is an evolving project that I began digging up last year. The big yuccas made it out there yesterday. Most of the smaller ones were sprinkled in a circle among the narcissus, yellow and purple crocus and pansies at the base of the plum tree. With my gardening foundation in place, I can now ponder my other purchases for the season. This could be the year of the fruit explosion. I have plum, fig and wild blackberries and am now hoping for pear, peach, apple and apricot. Who knows, this might also be the year of a whole new "flavor" of fruit collage!
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