Yucca nana

[Martin Tversted]

I just need to check the picture possibilities here.
11 years from seeds and then the first flowers came. Also the first Yucca to grow in spring.


Martin

[RickR]

Beautiful, Martin.  The flower spike is just as wonderful as the flowers themselves.  Maybe more!

Someday, I hope my Yucca nana  looks that good...

[Weiser]

Martin very nice plant and photo. Yuccas in bloom are very dramatic and defiantly steal the show!
But they don't stop there. They give some of the best year round drama to the dry garden when the early morning or late afternoon sunlight reflects off the leaf fillaments. They seem to be on fire.

Here is my Yucca nana.

[Martin Tversted]

Seems like yours have serverel heards? Mine have devided into 4-5 new heads after flowering. I moved to a new location last fall so I had to dig it up. It revealed 50 cm of stem down into the soil and 15 cm above the soil.

Martin

[Weiser]

It does have several heads but has never flowered. I think the growing tip got damaged in it's youth.

Martin do you hand pollinate your Yucca flowers? I know I read and article, some time ago, on the process.  I have been toying with the idea of doing it myself. I of course have the collection of yuccas but not the collection of moths I would need to pollinate them all.

[Hoy]

I have one Yucca (filamentosa maybe) in the garden but it doesn't grow well. Maybe Y nana had been a better doer? Seems to be a terrific plant!

[Martin Tversted]

Weiser:
Yes, I have hand pollinated the yucca, no bugs to do it here in Europe which make hybridizing easy.
Some of the other 11 year old Y nanas I have are far from flowering.

Hoy:
Rainy winters are not Y nanas best, however, it should be treated as an alpine and have lots of drainage. I hope the next generation of flaccida x nana will have the best from both parent species.

Btw, I do have someextra nana or harrimaniae ssp.out there to send to Norway if interested.
Martin

[cohan]

Nice! A species I'd like to try, for sure..

[Nold]

Here it is again.

Bob

[Tim Ingram]

That first photo of Martin's is very fine. I aim to try Yucca nana from seed. I have grown Y. harrimaniae (and sold plants on the nursery) for quite a few years and it seems quite variable. Here it is with Y. whipplei in the garden. I find that it quickly forms a short 'trunk' and I have to remove old leaves quite regularly. I think my favourite yucca could well be glauca for its very narrow leaves. They associate very well with many dryland alpines and small shrubs.

[Nold]

I have grown Y. harrimaniae (and sold plants on the nursery) for quite a few years and it seems quite variable.   

Is that an understatement!  I imagine that botanists consider Yucca nana to be a small form of harrimaniae. I have several "harrimaniae" in the garden here, and none looks like another, except that they're obviously yuccas.
I got fed up with the treatments of Yucca in the various floras and sprang for Hochstaetter's non-cheap yucca books. They seem more reasonable to me.

Part of an unfinished drawing of Y. harrimaniae, attached.

Bob

[RickR]

Bob, your Yucca nana is especially fantastic!

Every twirl of a fiber is a piece of art.

[Nold]

Every twirl of a fiber is a piece of art. 

I did that myself, of course, using a yucca-twirler.

According to Hochstaetter (who described it), it differs from Y. harrimaniae by having leaves less than 20cm long, a "shorter inflorescence", and pure white flowers.
That's probably not enough of a distinction for some botanists.

Bob

[RickR]

I did that myself, of course, using a yucca-twirler.

Bob

  Where can I get one of those yucca-twirlers?  (good one)

[Martin Tversted]

I have many kinds of small yucca forms in the size of harrimaniae-nana. I dont think the speciation is resolved and it is possible that the nana concept is just a variation of the other species.