Leaners

Gravity is a good thing. But too much of a good thing is not so good anymore.

I’ve been battling an excess of gravity in the garden for a while. Here are the two most recent examples.

Yucca queretaroensis (or, more likely, a naturally occurring hybrid between Yucca queretaroensis and Yucca filifera) has become a signature plant in front of the house. It’s now over 7 ft. tall. But it’s not only grown in height, it’s also grown in lean. Call it the Leaning Yucca of Davis.

Yucca queretaroensis today

It gets plenty of sun, and yet it’s leaning towards the west as if to catch every last ray of sunshine. Lately, the lean has become more pronounced, as if gravity is pulling the (no doubt heavy) head down. I have no idea if (or when) it will eventually topple over, but it would definitely crush a few things in its path.

The plants inside the yellow oval would get flattened if the yucca fell

There’s nothing I do to make this Yucca queretaroensis straight. It’s simply too big and too heavy to stake or tie down.

It didn’t always have such a tilt. Three years ago it was ramrod straight:

Yucca queretaroensis in September 2023

Not far from the yucca is my biggest barrel cactus:

Ferocactus herrerae a few weeks ago

It, too, is tilting towards the sun, and gravity seems to be pulling it downward.

I bought in Palm Desert 15 years ago

Last year I shoved a big rock under it to prevent it from taking a nosedive.

Speaking of nosedive, two of my favorite flowering cacti did just that earlier this year. Here’s Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’ in April. It had nine big flowers (see here); maybe they were simply too heavy.

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’ in April 2026

I’ve since then re-rooted and re-planted the stem that had snapped off. Fingers crossed it will flower next year.

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’ in April 2026

The second one was the tallest stem of Echinopsis ‘First Light’. First it started to lean, which I tried to stop with a rock...

Echinopsis ‘First Light’ in June 2026

...and a couple of days later it snapped:

Echinopsis ‘First Light’ in June 2026

As with ‘Flying Saucer’ above, I successfully re-rooted it and planted it in the backyard.

A few more leaners (and fallers) from over the years. First, Aloe ‘Moonglow’:

Aloe ‘Moonglow’ in February 2026, too many flowers?

Second, Yucca rostrata between our house and our neighbor’s (what is it with these arborescent yuccas?):

Yucca rostrata in November 2025, just before we cut it down

Unlike the other examples, this Yucca rostrata was planted on level ground (not on a mound). It didn’t lean south or southwest, towards the sun, it tilted north, away from the sun — what’s up with that? We were afraid that it might eventually fall over and hit our neighbor’s garage, so we cut it down last November (detailed post here).

And finally a tree, a ‘Sonoran Emerald’ palo verde, originally planted in the L-shaped berm along the sidewalk:

Parkinsonia ‘Sonoran Emerald’ in May 2019, right after it had fallen into the street

The typical pattern: first the lean, then the nosedive. The tree was simply too heavy to stake so the tumble was inevitable. You can read about the cleanup here.

Many of our plants are on mounds or berms. Only some of them lean, others grow perfectly straight. I have no idea why. But I’ve become more proactive. When I spot the beginnings of a lean, I shove a rock under the plant to stabilize it. That does the trick, at least for a while.

Do you have any leaners, tilters, or topplers in your garden? 

© Gerhard Bock, 2026. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.