PlantFiles: Curve-leaf Yucca, Pendulous Yucca, Weeping Yucca
Yucca recurvifolia

I have found that snipping the sharp tips off of this plant makes it much more gardener/kid friendly and does not alter the plant's appearance or harm it in any way. Great evergreen structure for the garden!

I mail ordered a variegated specimen and recieved it in a small one quart container. It performs great here in zone 10 A. It flowered the first year after it was planted! I read where it is rather slow to develop a trunk but it already has several branches two years later. It blooms in late spring, early summer for me. Many plants are listed as "growing" in zone 10 but they really don't prosper. This one does! Although this plant has drooping foliage the leaves are tipped with spines that are sharp as needles. They pierce the skin and clothes very easily. Not a good choice for an entry way but great as a xeriscape plant or dramatic accent. Tolerates our rainy seasons without decaying away like yucca filamentosa does.

This plant is awesome!! My ma had one in a pot when she moved to her house, I loved it so I cut a piece off and stuck it in the ground. Within a couple months it grew leaves, eventually it was big enough i could cut chunks off of it and spread them out... This plant makes nice thick walls after a few years. If you have annoying or nosey neighbors, this plant is for you! you can plant them along a fenceline or where a fence should be and they will make a natural fence. Not only will it give you privacy, no one will try to climb it. Only a couple of warnings: don't bend over next to it, it will get you! Also watch children near it- I find it's best to teach them to leave it alone; I just take them over to it then act like i'm touching it, then loudly go ow ow ow and put my finger in my mouth , as if it bit me.. after that they get kind of scared of it and leave it alone...which is better for them. Also you can cut off the leaves on one side if you want, it might lean a bit, its pretty strong though and it will protect you. It's good to give it some room and if you don't want it to spread you gotta cut those pups off before they turn too woody. It is very hardy and will deal with just about any weather, 104 degrees F to 20 degrees F to flooding to drought, they don't care..They are pretty cool like that. In the winter growth slows a little bit, the summer makes up for it though. You can even cut a chunk and bury the middle of it and leaves will grow out both sides. It will spread in clumps, not annoying like runnergrass. If you konw someone that has it, you need never buy it, just hack off a piece and stick it in the ground.

Zone 7 - Memphis, TN

We bought this crazy plant last year and had it potted on the back porch, most of the time it sat under the umbrella and had filtered sunlight. This winter I pulled it (along with my palm trees) into the garage and only watered it once or twice.

It grew like CRAZY in its' pot so I decided to repot it and was completely blown away by its' root system. I broke several 'pods' off while trying to get Yucca out of its' pot. I stuck them in several landscaped beds around the yard, just to see what they would do. But upon reading about the invasiveness of this plant, I may keep my darling Weeping Yucca in a pot on the porch. I have pets and young children, so I'll need to take precautions.

We really love the crazy weeping shape this plant has taken and highly recommend it to others who like plants who aren't afraid to exercise their artistic license in the garden.

Good luck and happy planting!

These plants are reliably hardy through Zone 6 and have even been grown successfully in a dry zone 5b location (Colorado Springs, CO). There is a large plant with two 6-foot trunks near a hardware store in Quincy, PA (about 20 miles from where I live), and the local Home Depot in Hagerstown, MD (zone 6b as well) is selling 3-gallon plants, three of which I bought.

In addition, Brian Williams (nursery owner in Louisville, KY, zone 6a) has grown them there for about 10 years or so, and the only problem he's noted during the winter is that extremely heavy snowfall can accumulate on the leaves and break the trunk, so if you live in areas that get heavy snowfall, it might be a good idea to stake trunked Y. recurvifolia plants.

This plant grows fast here in Nevada and has been moved and replanted several times and still thrives. I hope I have it in the right place now as it is too big to move again. The leaves are very sharp. The plant grows upward but does not spread out very fast. The babies can be replanted and do very well.

These attractive plants bloom in May. They were planted where the core of the plant was choked with leaves from post oaks growing nearby. I found that the leaves could be removed with a strong jet spray from the hose. The leaves would have undoubtedly have lead to stem rot.

Even though they have "soft-tip" leaves, do watch for the knife edges of these leaves.