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Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?

A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.

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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

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Please forgive us, but Mr. Smarty Plants has been overwhelmed by a flood of mail and must take a break for awhile to catch up. We hope to be accepting new questions again soon. Thank you!

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Saturday - January 10, 2009

From: irving, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Plant Identification
Title: Proper spacing for planting yuccas
Answered by: Jimmy Mills

QUESTION:

We bought some yuccas and need to know how far apart to plant them

ANSWER:

 In general, yuccas and most other xeric plants look best if given plenty of space.  That is, they have some separation when mature.  However, they can look good when done in small clumps of three or so.  One thing to consider is the effect you are trying to achieve. Are you planning to xeriscape your yard, or do you want to create a barrier with the yuccas?

Another factor to think about is the mature size of your yuccas; ie how big are they going to get (both height and width)? Knowing the Botanical name of the plants would be useful here. The nursery where you bought them may be able to help you with the name, as well as provide suggestions for properly planting them.

For more information about yuccas, go to our website and click on EXPLORE PLANTS. Type Yucca in the appropriate space, click "go", and you will get a list of 28 species that either are in the genus Yucca, or have yucca as part of their common name. If you chose the NARROW YOUR SEARCH optio and chose Texas in the Select a State or Prrovince box,and then click the Narrow your search box, your list will narrow to 18 species. Clicking on any name on the list will take you to  the NATIVE PLANT DATABASE page for that plant. There you can learn characteristics of the plant, such as habitat, size, growing conditions, benefits, etc. The ADDITIONAL RESOURCES box toward the bottom of  the page can link you to further informatiion sources on Google.

 

 

 

 

 

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