Spanish daggers will grow to excess with enough water

Question: Our Spanish dagger yucca was doing great, but it’s leaning badly now. There are pups coming from the base. Is this normal?

I think this plant has been getting watered too frequently; the soil is staying wet and not draining.

Normally, the trunk has some pretty good taper and it will stand upright when it goes through wet and extended dry cycles. When it grows slowly due to infrequent watering, the trunk does not get spindly and fall over.

In wetter climates, this has been a problem with this plant when it gets about 5 feet tall. When water is present all the time, it will take advantage of the excess water and grow as much as it can in length and not in girth.

It just wants to reproduce, and it does not care if it is upright or lying on the ground. In fact, it is possible it could root from the trunk into the soil as it is lying there. This plant can root from trunk cuttings.

If you don’t like it lying on the ground, then cut it off close to the soil level and leave those pups to grow into a clump. You can divide them in the fall or even now if you are quick about it.

Bob Morris is a horticulture expert living in Las Vegas and professor emeritus for the University of Nevada. Visit his blog at xtremehorticulture.blogspot.com.