Blooms of the morning

[cactuswatcher]

This is the yucca blooming in the front yard.
The flowers are very similar to the yucca flowers from the backyard I showed last night. The stalk on this one is about five foot tall. The grassy fountain-like plant to the right is another Yucca elata like the blooming one in the picture last night. It will probably need a couple more years before it sends up a bloom stalk. The purple stuff stuff on the ground behind the blooming yucca is petals for my neighbor's ratty sage. Off to the upper right, yes the tree is blue from blooming. Just off the picture to the right across the street is my other neighbor's scenic trash can. It's trash day.

blooming - Yucca rupicola, Twisted leaf yucca
not blooming - Yucca elata, Soaptree yucca

Since you might actually like to see the flowers here's a close up of the one in back. The common name comes from the Indians who discovered that the sap of this yucca works as a foamy soap. This plant is native to Arizona and grows wild in places in this county.

Yucca elata, Soaptree yucca

Comments

[ann1962]

People grow them pretty successfully here. What I like about them is that the leaves and stalk last throughout the winter, and gives real sculpture to a garden.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

We had a beautiful Blue yucca in our backyard in St. Louis. I know that kind can grow as far north as Alberta. I agree they can be very dramatic plants.

[mamculuna.livejournal.com]

Beautiful pictures. I think the yucca most common in my part of the world is commonly called Spanish Bayonet. The blooms look similar to me, but I'm sure they're really not the same. Blooms at this time of year, though.

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

I have two of those in my yard as well, but they definitely belong more in your part of the world. In winter they do fine here with the same water I give the other yucca's. In high summer though they need to be watered almost every day. For several months they take about as much water as the rest of the garden put together. I guess I really ought to take them out and replace them with something more ecologically sound. But, they do look nice with their deep green leaves. They are the plants I will definitely have to have some one water while I'm in Tahoe.