Remember back in February when Storm Doris arrived and blew her way across the country? Well, my yucca had been feeling the ill effects of her visit every since. I'd looked in various garden centres for the right kind of stake, or the stake I had in mind, but couldn't find what I was after. I'm sure it exists, but maybe not.
I'd persuaded MOH he could make something that would hold up the yucca, but while he agreed he seemed less sure. And then when we got to put slate down in front of the yucca it made sense to sort it out before that.
Looking around the garden I found a stake that was long enough, which used to be part of our leaf bin, before our neighbour's bonfire got a bit out of control a few years back. So out of control that the Fire Brigade came and put it out, quite a scary time and we were lucky just to have a singed leaf bin and fence.
While MOH was banging this in my job was to hold the sharp, pointy and quite vicious leaves out of the way. Then to climb into the bed to strap one of the limbs to the stake. I get all the best jobs...
It was clear that this alone wouldn't work and the front branch would need further support. I was back to looking around the garden and spied some logs from the lilac tree, which we'd cut last summer and were saving for the planned firepit. A couple though were put to use straightaway supporting the yucca.
So with some ingenuity and a couple of things I already had, we managed to prop the yucca up. And straight away it looked better.
YES, THAT'S BETTER...
And just a week later it was clear how much difference it had made. I joked on Facebook that some flowers would be appreciated. It last flowered in 2013, and I was hopeful it would be time for more flowers again soon. I wasn't sure though, as Doris had given it a bit of a bashing and we'd taken a while to resolve that.
So imagine how shocked - and pleased - I was when I saw this as I wandered up the garden to water the greenhouse.
Yes! A flower! And I've feeling that there's at least another one on the way from the front branch that's propped up by that lilac log. I can't believe how quickly it's appeared, but I'm really glad it has. And then this weekend there was further evidence that it's happy with it's new lot. The second log that was propping up the main stem, and was wedged against the brick edging was now defunct, it was no longer holding anything up, the yucca it seems has remembered about growing upwards towards the light, which is great.
Now it's just a matter of waiting for the flower to do its thing...
But I'm so glad it's happy again, this was one of the few plants that I brought with me when we moved here back in 2002, and it's got quite some history.