Spineless Yucca Yucca Elephantipes

Unlike most yuccas sold in Australia, this one will not draw blood. The leaf tips are soft, which is the whole reason it turns up in courtyards, entries, pool surrounds and pots. The habit is distinctive: a swollen elephant footed base, thick pale trunks that branch as they age, and rosettes of long strappy green leaves at each head. It is an architectural plant for dry gardens and containers, holding its shape with almost no attention and reading as a piece of structure rather than as foliage.

Soft tipped and safe to plant close

Full sun, sharp drainage and neglect are the recipe. It grows slowly, tolerates heat, coastal exposure, poor sandy soil and long dry spells once the roots are down, and it will sit happily in a large container for years. In garden beds, plant it high rather than deep in clay soils, or mound the position, and skip the rich compost. The failure mode is water. Kept damp, in a pot without drainage or in heavy soil that holds winter rain, the base softens and rots from the middle, the trunks go hollow and the plant collapses without much warning. This is the usual cause of death in pots and in open ground alike, and it is nearly always kindness. Water deeply and then leave it alone until the soil has dried well down. Older multi headed plants get top heavy and lean, so set them firm and deep in open ground, and choose a heavy pot rather than a light plastic one if it is staying in a container. Hard frost is the other limit worth checking, since a cold snap marks the foliage on exposed plants.

Architecture without the tropics

In the tropics the variegated Pandanus baptistii does a similar job, spineless foliage in a bold spiral, but it needs heat and humidity all year, where the yucca is at home in Melbourne, Adelaide and dry inland gardens with mild winters. Pandanus utilis Red Edge is the opposite decision entirely, all spines and coastal drama, and it wants a bed nobody walks through. Buy the yucca when the position is close to people, the maintenance budget is small, or the plant is going into a pot. It is also the only one of the three you can cut down and restart if it outgrows the space, which neither pandanus will tolerate. Similar plants that ask very little sit under low maintenance.

Cutting trunks back to control height

Height is controlled with a saw. Cut a trunk back to the height you want in spring or early summer and it will reshoot from below the cut, usually with two or three heads instead of one. The removed section will strike as a new plant if you stand it somewhere dry for a week or two to let the cut end callus over, then set it in a gritty mix. Pull off spent lower leaves by hand as they brown. Feed sparingly; a light dressing of controlled release fertiliser in spring is enough, and do not feed at all through winter. Turn potted plants every few months so the heads fill out evenly instead of leaning.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 5 sizes, from 75mm up to 100L, priced from $16.95 to $749.00 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. The smaller pots hold younger plants that cost less each and establish quickly, which suits hedges, screens and mass planting where the plant count adds up. The larger sizes carry several more years of growth on the farm and give height and presence straight away, which is what you want for a single feature position or a screen that cannot wait. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to low water gardens.