Fine-looking flower, does it have any fragrance and does it need some kind of special pollinator moth for the seeds to produce?

Bummer that it will die.

Sharon

I am impressed you have one that actually bloomed! Do you think if you cut the flower stalk off before it started to set seed that it might try to rebloom again....in 7-8 years? Of course, you would lose the seeds by doing that.
Enjoy!
Jan

Wow what a cool plant - lucky to see the blooms!

I read the title of your post and thought it would make a good name for a line of hand-selected perennials and annuals that don't bloom like they are supposed to. LOL. Kinda like "I Can't Believe it's not Butter" I am thinking of some roses, and that cobea scandens (Cathedral Bells) I planted one year...

Oh, excellent! Do you think it odd that it would choose this year to bloom, the fact that Calgary had soooo much moisture earlier this summer. And it seems this summer's nights have been a little cooler than Calgary normal? Do you recall if there is any correlation between the weather the last time it bloomed and this year's. It seems that this plant would be happiest in hot and dry instead of cool and wet.

I have about 6 baby plants, winter sowed courtesy of Sharon (thanks again!). Soooooo, 7 or 8 years, eh?

Marcia,
marking 2012 on her calendar

That's very exciting.

It would be interesting to know what exactly encourages them to bloom. I received a root of yucca filamentosa in the mail, from Spring Garden of all places (this was back in 1999 or so.) It bloomed the next spring, but hasn't bloomed since. Of course the original mound has been moved three times in my yard, so I guess it's suffered transplanting shock as well.

From what I understand, don't they need a special moth, the yucca moth, to pollinate the flowers? Apparently though, where the moth doesn't exist, people can hand pollinate. Of course it's also quite easy to take a piece of the root and start another plant as well.

Glen

Yours is alot nicer of a plant than what I am use to. You might actually convince me to try one. From what I remember on Vancouver Island where they are a popular plant at gas stations they would bloom every year. Maybe that is it, you just need to park your car near it in the winter while you are warming it up to give it lots of gas/diesel fumes! :) LOL Really I do like yours quite abit and I hope it starts blooming every year for you.

Syreeta

Sharon, the flowers have very little fragrance, that I can detect, anyway- more of a "green" smell than any sort of perfume. They are pretty though - very heavy waxy substance, pure white inside and out, with only a bit of green shading on the pistil. The flowers kind of "glow" at night- useful for attracting those moths, I guess.

The last time one of them bloomed (which I actually think now was a different plant), it did form seedpods and I remember shaking out normal-looking seeds. It seems unlikely that the yucca moth would occur around here, though, given the sparsity of yuccas, since the native yucca, Y. glauca, only barely sneaks into Alta and Sask from across the border (as I understand it, anyway). But anyway, it did form seeds, though I don't know if they were fertile.

Jan, interesting thought - I was thinking it would be worth trying on echeveria also, where you can see the results quickly, within the same season, to see if it works. (I've always wondered with plants like this - is it the act of blooming, or is it the act of setting seeds, that causes that part of the plant to die out?)

Pudge, I can scarcely remember the weather from day to day, LOL! I suspect it was just "ready to bloom", though it does seem pretty unfitting to be doing it out there in "Hound of the Baskervilles" mist and rain! (Sheesh, we get, what - 4 hot days? - which I miss by working late - and now that I'm on vacation, this is the weather I get??)

I shudder to think how long they might take to bloom from seed - clearly you have more patience than I do, Marcia! I bought my plants..."for instant gratification"...HA!

Glen, they do seem impossible to kill, though, don't they? I thought I'd killed one, when I moved it, but it came back...slowly.
Hey, if the fumes from all the minivans and SUV's roaring by all day are what counts, they should all be in constant bloom!
Anyway, thanks for all of your comments!

Congratulations, Lori. That's a gorgeous flower! I'll be trying, this year, to get a yucca to overwinter for me. My first attempt, many years ago, was not successful. You've renewed my hope. :o)

Doris

This really is an amazing species. I first saw these in north Florida where it grows commonly in piney woods. Rarely did you see one in bloom, even ones that were pampered in a person's garden. So maybe it just isn't a very prolific bloomer.

The fact that it can grow in zone 3 is amazing since it is equally happy in zone 10! That's one tough customer. PF