Thou canst not then be false to any yucca

Oak Point 6/27/2014

Green seed pods 6/27/2014

False red yucca AKA Hesperaloe parviflora is an attractive landscaping plant alongside many North Texas tollroads. I check out the plants in the parking lot of Oak Point Nature Preserve often. Today they were really buzzing. Green seed pods have started forming.

Red yucca (which is not a yucca) is a stalwart in the landscapes of Texas and the southwest. Its dark green rosette of long, thin leaves rising fountain-like from the base provides an unusual sculptural accent, its long spikes of pink to red to coral bell-shaped flowers last from May through October, and it is exceedingly tough, tolerating extreme heat and cold and needing no attention or supplemental irrigation once established, although many people remove the dried flower stalks in the fall. Unlike yucca, the leaves are not spine-tipped, and have fibrous threads along the edges.

Along the President George Bush Tollway

A year and a half ago I borrowed some seeds from the parking lot plants, and loaned them to the backyard patio at my condo. The seeds had sprouted and growing last summer. Wondering how they are faring now in my old home.

False red yucca seed pods 12/12/2012

Oak Point 12/12/2012

It would be nice if Polonius had explained xeriscaping and recycling to Laertes.



Neither a borrower nor a lender be;
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.

This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.