Native Plants

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Sunday - May 10, 2009

From: Dallas, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Turf
Title: Lawn care?
Answered by: Damon Waitt

QUESTION:

I had red yucca planted in my garden last May. They were trimmed back by my lawn care people last winter and currently seem to be slowly growing back. However, the red flower stalk is not growing back at all. I have notice others blooming throughout the neighborhood and I'm wondering what I should do and if it will ever bloom again.

ANSWER:

Lawn "care" sounds like an overstatement. Your Hesperaloe parviflora (redflower false yucca) wil need time to recover vegetatively before it can produce a flowering stalk. Flower production is typically an energy requiring part of a plant''s life cycle and the individual must have enough stored resources to produce these "expensive" structures. Depending on how bad the plant was damaged it may take anywhere from 1-3 growing seasons to recover.

If it is any consolation, here are some nice images of flowering red yucca: