Those were Yucca filamentosa yes? They should not look like that unless they bloomed. If they bloomed, they will send up new shoots from the base and yes you can just remove the entire post bloom dead part. The one that is still green and yellow you can leave alone.

If they drowned and died from being cold and waterlogged in a planter that does not have good drainage, then they are dead.

Don't give up on this hard to reach and water planter box yet. The gravel and sedum Angelina is a good start.

Yes I believe they were the yucca you describe. I planted them on advice from this group for my climate and they have basically failed after one winter.

The planter drains just fine. The issue is we get snow too here. We are a dry somewhat in summer climate, insanely wet spring and summer and occasional to ongoing snow in winter.

Spring is not here yet so leave them alone until you can see if there is new growth coming . We had a ton of snow this year my yuccas were buried and still are but they will come back they are really tough plants but IMO too many in that planter and I agree the drainage could be the biggest issue yuccas do not like wet roots ,

Advice from this group on this planter box would be me to a large extent. I live in a zone 6 with plenty snow, cold and rain, probably more than your PNW location. My Yucca filamentosa are perfectly green and fine and winter isn't even over.

Only two things can do that to the Yucca, blooming and the end of that rosette's life cycle and cold wet feet. Which is it?

Another PNW'er chiming in here :-) Unless you live up in the mountains, we simply do not receive enough snow here for that to ever be a concern! Ditto with cold. And far less rainfall than most of the country (despite countless rumors to the contrary). What is happening is not really a weather issue.........

Yucca filamentosa is dead common in this area and typically thrives here with virtually NO attention. But it does require very good drainage. Lack of that - or planting soil that retains too much moisture for too long - is the most likely reason these did not survive winter. Except for the most forward planted one. The others are dead...not from cold, not from blooming but from wet feet.

I'd be interested in what the planter is filled with. Good drainage and water retention are not mutually exclusive and it is very possible to have both.

Half the planter is covered by the roof overhang. The half that shows the ones you all are saying are dead. Only the one that is green has access to open water. This area is mostly dry other than when we had the snow that lingered this year and weighed down everything. In the three years we’ve lived here I’ve had things die in this planter box from not enough water and never from too much hence my confusion. The planter box is about six feet tall from the ground. It has rocks and gravel at the bottom 4 feet I would say then 2 feet of soil that was new last spring and then a final few inches of river rocks on top. Throughout the spring, summer, fall this looked gorgeous with no issues at all. It wasn’t until December when it snowed and since that it’s looked like this

So if the planter is the problem what next? I put this all in last spring as it seemed like what was needed and it did thrive. But I don’t want to be replacing things every year. So what can I do that will work well here?

These two pics are from first week of July and end of August showing how happy everything initially appeared. 😩

Since I can't visually or physically evaluate the soil mix, I can only speculate that is what is causing the issue (excessive water retention). But nothing else you describe could account for their rapid demise. Certainly not any recent PNW weather issues!

Perhaps replace the yuccas with Carex morrowii 'Aureovariegata', a mounding and clumping evergreen sedge. Fully hardy in this climate, happy in sun or shade, tolerant of quite moist soils as well as summer dry ones. They just do not demand the fast drainage and the drier winter growing conditions of the yucca.

And they will look good with the sedum :-)

That is a good suggestion. We have those elsewhere and they still look very green an lush. I’ll see how things go over the next month. We didn’t have a lot of snow in terms of actual volume it just stayed on the ground/plants for longer than normally does. I feel like the snow locally in Vancouver in past has been more like a fall, stay a few days, warm up and rain away, repeat. This year it felt like it was fall, stay on ground, get cold again and add more and more and finally wash away. Lots of my garden was weighed down by it. We had to clear it of my magnolia tree and then stake the branches as they were all weighted down. We had tons of tree branches break too.

Four feet of rock and gravel. two feet of soil topped with a few inches of river rock. Sounds like a gravel sandwich. Someone else can do the drainage math, but it doesn't sound good to me.

Well it is what it is. I’m not digging up six feet of material. It doesn’t have direct water access except for the front section. I’ve never had anything die in it over the years from too much water only too little in summer. Knowing what it is I’ll now and wasting this money on it I’ll need to rethink what goes in it clearly

It is what it is. And it is a good clue for success.

So just went out and poked around under the river to rock. It’s wet at the front but not at the back at all. We also just got back from a walk in our neighborhood and most of the yucca types looks similarly bad as ours so can’t just be our planter. The one I have in a pot elsewhere also looks sad. Just going to leave it all for now and see what early spring sends my way

How odd. A neighborhood wipeout of Yucca filamentosa. That's a local problem. In your last picture there was an added plant in the center. It looks like a Dracaena or Phormium ( I'm still blind here ) Those would be a bit less cold hardy than the yucca. It also looks just like a frozen house plant too.

How cold did it get and for how long? How much of a temperature swing was it? At this point, if the root crowns are still alive you won't see any new growth until June or July.

Looking back it looks like we were wet for most of December and around 2/3 Celsius then around Christmas took a turn and had -7 to -13 days for abut a week. During that time we had snow on the ground with then new snow for several weeks. We even had a school snow day which rarely happens lol. We are normally not below zero too often in winter. Once the snow cleared it’s been fairly seasonal I would say. We also had the most rain we’ve ever had in fall of this year. For Sept to Nov we normally get a bit over 360 mm of rain and this year we had 611 mm so significantly more. It was pretty horrendous

Death by drowning in a frozen gravel sandwich still works.

@WestCoast Hopeful You are in Vancouver, BC, yes? I’m Vancouver, WA & was at first puzzling over your described amount of December snow - which we also had but not the volume or extended low temps you experienced. I think we are both headed for a week of low night temps 22F for me & -5C for you if I have that conversion right 🥶

Yes I noticed we have more cold in the forecast. February is always a surprise! I’m just going to ignore the garden for a bit longer and wait till March to worry. 😀

Yes, pray for a warmer March! But I was outside doing cleanup chores during our recent sun. our crocus & daffodils are up as well as barberry shrubs almost blooming. I'm concerned about some Hosta pips that are showing a bit too early.

Even in the summer ics those do not look happy usually yucca floiage is very uptight not droopy as yours are IMO the bed is the issue

The picture where they are droopy is the first day I planted them. The second picture where they have grown and are happy is almost two months later.

Regardless we are where we are and I’m going to see what happens next and adjust. I’ll use the rest of my garden as a gage on what might survive next fall/winter

Very Good! That is going to look nice and you don't have to fuss over watering it. Just so you know, there is no law stating the sedum must be deadheaded when it is finished blooming.

The yucca came back too. It’s small but there

I saw the yucca. Are they resprouting all over the neighborhood?

I can’t recall! Will need to keep an eye out next time I walk about