Yucca Aloifolia

Yucca Aloifolia

The Yucca Aloifolia is a bold, exotic plant known popularly as Spanish Bayonet. It is a stately plant for difficult locations, and is easy to care for as it does well in a variety of conditions. In the wild, it can grown to an enormous 12 metres (40 feet), but indoors it is very slow growing. The Yucca is durable if it is not overwatered. Wet, soggy conditions will cause rot, so it is essential to ensure that the pot has good drainage.

• Light: Well-lit positions, full sun, if possible
• Temperature: The Spanish Bayonet prefers cool conditions, but can tolerate normally heated rooms
• Watering: During summer, soak the soil and allow it to nearly dry before soaking again. Water very little in winter
• Feeding: Use cactus fertilizer once every two weeks
• Diseases and pests: Scale can be controlled by spraying with malathion or using a cotton swab dipped in methylated spirits to remove individual pests
• Propagation: By offsets or stem cuttings. Lengths of bare stems are imported from the tropics and then rooted at their destination