Question
Hi Russel,
My husband & I were looking for some tropical looking, yet inexpensive plants for 4 large planters in the front of our home and in the rear around our pool. At Lowe's, my husband bought 2 large 5' yucca cane plants and 2 small 2' yucca cane plants. He proceeded to painstakingly plant them (the planters are 28" high (enormous...tons of dirt). Anyway, the yucca cane plants are now all sitting in outdoor planters...and I've just been told that they are HOUSEPLANTS! We live in Myrtle Beach..so the weather here stays between 45 to 100 degrees most all of the time. In your opinion...do they have a chance of living outside? Have you ever heard of anyone planting these outdoors???  Thank you so much in advance for any thoughts and advice you could give us.
~Ashland


Answer
Hey, Ashland.

My climate here in San Diego is similar to your climate there in Myrtle Beach. I have many, many yuccas outdoors, including yucca cane plants. The only problems that I have experienced are when the hot, dry Santa Ana winds come through. The yucca cane plant seems to be subject to desiccation at those times, so when I know the winds are coming, I just make sure that I water well. The other problem is during those one-a-decade events when it gets freezing in the specific area where I live. For example, we had snow and hail here on January 15, and the freeze and hail did damage the yucca cane plants.

I do know of gardeners throughout the U.S., as well as some locations in Canada, who are growing yucca cane plants outdoors. In northern climates, they protect them from snow and frost by bringing them indoors during the winter. In the extreme desert climates (some areas of San Diego, as well as Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas), they simply water them more and sometimes protect them with shade cloth.

If you bought them at Lowes, they may or may not have been in the indoor area, the shade cloth area, or the full sun area. Lowes (and Home Depot) are not consistent in where they put them. Simply keep an eye on them to make sure that they are acclimating to the location where you planted them.

If you really want beautiful tropical-looking, inexpensive, and easy to care for plants, check out the succulent family, especially the agaves, aeoniums, aloes, and other yucca species. The agave attenuata is beautiful with blue-green, and very tropical-looking. And they don't need a lot of water, so you'll have a lower water bill. If you'd like to see some pictures of them, check out http://www.abouthomes.info/reports/Vegetation.pdf All the plants in that file are on my property here in San Diego.