Yucca whipplei, which is now also known as Hesperoyucca whipplei, was the first species of Yucca that I met in the wild when I relocated to San Luis Obispo in 1985. Although it is too unpleasantly spiny for me to recommend it for home gardens, it is my favorite species of Yucca.

The only specimen of Yucca whipplei that inhabits our landscapes produced a few seed pods two years ago. I dried the seed and sowed them last year. I would have been pleased if a few germinated successfully. Instead, hundreds of them are now growing! Again, I grew too much of a good thing.

I can install several as a deer fence below a portion of my home garden. Although they grow only about three feet tall, deer will not try to jump over them uphill if they can not land beyond their painful foliage on the uphill side. However, if I put them three feet apart, only about twenty seedlings will be needed for approximately sixty linear feet of deer fence. That might be only about a twentieth of the hundreds that are now growing! They are still babies. I can worry about finding homes for them later.