hi I hope someone will be able to help me, my daughter bought a house last year with a big lovely yukka tree growing in the front garden, but it is now looking terrible and really looks as if it is dying if not died can anyone advise we are not great gardeners and have never had a tree like this , thanks in anticipation of some help
Any chance of a photo, you can tell so much more from a photo than a verbal description. And do you mean a Yucca tree?
hi yes i do mean a yucca tree I wasnt even sure how to spell it, I will try to get a photo of it in the next few days, thanks for your reply appreciated.
hi here is the photo of the tree, can you help thanks the yucca ( photo / image / picture from blackswan's Garden ) yucca ( photo / image / picture from blackswan's Garden )
Yucca is native the arid southwestern portion of the U.S. where the temperatures are very high and there is very little rain. The night time temperatures do get cold there but the days are sunny and hot. Overwatering, poor drainage or prolonged very cold temperatures will cause that kind of damage. Did you have a very wet or icy/snow winter? Cut off all the brown leaves, it can then use it's energy to heal instead of having to keep dying leaves alive. Are the stems hard or mushy? If the stems are still hard, it has a chance of recooperating but if they are all mushy then it is time to replace it.
We have what we call a yucca here (climate very similar to yours) but is really Cordyline australis (Cabbage Tree). When we were in Dublin they called them "palm trees" and were lined up down by the bay. They are usually multiple trunked, but can be single trunked. Mine was single trunked until we had a very cold spell that I thought had killed it. It is back from the roots and is multiple trunked like yours now. They will look pretty sad after a cold winter, but often come back just fine. I find them a very interesting plant. It stands our wet, cool weather 9 months of the year, but does well in a dry, hot location by the front street during our summer. If only it wasn't quite so sensitive to temps into the single digits F. You can trim out any branches that have died, but I would wait and see if there is any life later in the year. It might have multiple tops where it has initially died back. If you cut a branch off you will notice the most unusually "wood". It is actually just fibers and not wood like. Mine started out as a potted plant (gift) and is now in the ground.
thanks very much for all replies, much appreciated ,yes we did have an extremely cold icy winter here in uk this year colder than usual, so I will tell my daughter to take off the very worst leaves and leave the rest then see what happens when it gets warmer. once again thanks.
