What’s most likely a Yucca recurvifolia ‘Margaritaville,’ is throwing its first bloom. And here I was just telling the Outlaw Gardener that this yucca seems to have decided it’s not the blooming type. Its ears must have been burning because within a couple weeks this spike showed up. I need to trash talk my plants more often. That brings this year’s offbeat bloom tally to 1) Dasylirion wheeleri 2) Mangave ‘Bloodspot’ 3) Agave parryi. Among the three, the dasylirion will live on, the other two expiring from the dreaded monocarpism (blooms once then dies). While the yucca seizes the day and blooms, it’s carpe mortem for the agave and mangave.
Ooh, nice color palette on these two shots. SIde-by-side presentation emphasizes this. 🙂
(Pretty plant too)
It’s so elegant too.
Very nice Denise! Come to think of it I think I haven’t seen a photo of Margaritaville blooming before yours. After it’s spectacular blooming it will set it back just a little bit then cross fingers it will split and become a multi headed specimen 🙂
@Alan, it was a weird, greenish, overcast sky yesterday morning. Back to bright and blue today.
@RD, it is such an enormous presence in the garden. It seems to photo-bomb every shot I take.
@M&G, thanks for that info! A multi-headed specimen, you say…that’s going to take getting used to.
Leave it to our plants to make liars of us! Isn’t it funny that when we decide that something won’t bloom or threaten to cut down a tree for not producing, they get busy and perform? Looks like it’ll bloom gloriously!
That looks to be quite a size for a plant that is just blooming for the first time. My tiny Yucca filamentosa ‘Color Guard’ bloomed this year, a short bloom spike, but still a bloom. I hope for even more next year.
I keep hearing about a client’s Yucca pallida bloom stalks – he doesn’t see the need to own a digital camera, or document such things. Arrgh! Glad your yucca came through; it seems late, but then again, these yuccas seem to bloom at times from where they get stress, then relief (rain, cool, etc) in their native habitats…maybe since you are too mild in winter, it takes until some hot weather to bloom? An interesting topic.
@Peter, after a few years of blogging the contradictions tend to pile up, perfect example here — such-and-such never blooms…oops! nevermind, it’s in bloom.
@David, thanks for that info. Maybe drought stress brought it on?
That’s a beauty Denise. I find sometimes when I threaten to shovel prune a plant it starts performing much better. I agree, one needs to occasionally ‘trash talk’ one’s plants, LOL
My ‘Margaritaville’ looks about the same size of yours. Mine has never bloomed and I was convinced it never would. Ooops. It’s planted next to an Agave desmettiana ‘Variegata’ (5 ft tall and counting) which is acting weird: The new leaves are noticeably shorter and narrower than the old ones. Some say that’s a sign of impending flowering. My guess is that both will flower next year. Am I lucky, or what?
@Alison, that’s what had me confused, that it could reach this size without blooming. I think it may be the oldest plant in the back garden.
@Deanne, yes, threatening with the shovel, trash talk, whatever works!
@Gerhard, my Agave ‘Blue Glows’ are acting weird too. Some blooms I can do without!
Spectacular. I have four of these yuccas, all pretty small still, which is fine with me. But the advantage of growth is those pretty blooms.