How to Cut Back a Yucca Plant

Prune yucca to spruce up its shaggy look.

Yucca's distinctive spiky foliage and drought hardiness make it an ideal xeriscape ornamental. One of the best features of the yucca is that it requires very little care. In fact, if you don't mind the shaggy look of natural yucca, you can forgo pruning altogether. But if the rough look of your yucca is taking away from its ornamental value, it is time to cut it back. The best time to cut back yucca is in early spring before it puts on a new flush of growth for the season.

Things You'll Need

• Lopping shears
• Serrated knife

Instructions

1. Remove the dead, shaggy leaves from the base of the plant. Use a sharp, serrated knife to prune away the dead tissue at its base.

2. Prune the yucca's flowering stalk back to ground level with a pair of lopping shears once it has finished flowering.

3. Remove all of the dead yucca tissue from the area. Do not leave the leaves in the yucca bed. Dried, brittle yucca poses a significant fire hazard under dry conditions. Bag and throw the leaves away or compost them.

Tips & Warnings

• Yucca that is too tall for your home must be given away, transplanted outdoors or discarded. Do not attempt to cut back the yucca's trunk. The main plant will die and the yucca will send up quite a few young plants called pups around its root zones. The more you try to cut these pups back, the more they will pop up.

• Wear thick gardening gloves when pruning yucca. Its leaves can be sharp.

References

• Horticulture and Crop Science Ohio State University: Yucca Filamentosa
• Arizona Cooperative Extension; Cactus, Agave, Yucca, Octillo; Jack Kelly, et al.; April 2009
• Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center; Winter Pruning for Yucca in Michigan; Barbara Medford; November 2008
• University of Florida IFAS Extension; Agave and Yucca: Tough Plants for Tough Times; Gary W. Knox