Yucca Tree Votives

Yucca Tree Votives will brighten up your holiday gift giving!

Step 1 Find a Yucca tree in desperate need of some trimming.

This step was more complex for my wife and I than it has to be. To find our Yucca in need of trimming, we bought a 1932 fixer-upper in Highland Park. This Google Maps image shows how over-grown it was. It doesn't show the one-of-four stray dogs that was napping in its shade when we moved in.

Comments

[Purple Guy]

Hey,
I live in the UK and I am thinking of making one of these, But what type of wood should I use?
Cheers : )

[mroeder74]

Any that you like. If it looks good, use it. For me it was all about what was available -- a yucca that needed to be cut down. Good luck.

[cutting Matt]

do yucca trees grow in climate zone 4-5? or did you use yucca because of the bark?

[mroeder74]

Yuccas are listed as zones 9, 10a & b, and 11. That's not to say they won't grow elsewhere, volunteers seem to pop-up in the weirdest places. I used Yucca because I was in the process of cutting one down behind my house.

[chuckr44]

Yucca plants grow in the wild in Michigan though they are not native here. The only gets about 2-3 feet high at most, though the flower spikes are another 2 feet high. And they are not tree-like at all. They do not have a trunk.

[mroeder74]

Not Highland Park, Michigan. Highland Park, a neighborhood in Northeast Los Angeles. Here, they are very tree-like, including a trunk.

[cutting Matt]

thanks!!

[rmyoder]

Is it possible that the wood could catch fire?

[mroeder74]

The votive itself is flammable because it is basically a dry tree limb, but I haven't had a problem with them catching fire.

[buckyard]

I like these. Very nice, and good for any time of the year. Thanks!

[croqzine]

They're nifty!

[shaggyjay]

DO NOT use your feet for clamps. If the drill twists around or does not go straight down, the next thing it will go through is your foot. That "fibrous inside" of the tree is much harder than your shoe, or foot, and you will not want to clean your metatarsals off the drill bit.

[fungus amungus]

Gotta agree with that one. Feet ain't cheap. Aside from that, the results look good.

[ChrysN]

Very nice!

[Cthulu]

Cool.