This picture is taken along the city parking structure on Laurier Avenue. Along the south-facing side is a pleasant-but-thin garden. The perennials have been cut back flush to the earth. Notice the hole in the centre. There was a matching hole at the other end of the garden. These were homes to spectacular Yucca plants. Looking straight out of the Arizona & New Mexico deserts, these exotic looking perennials are hardy in Ottawa and send out tall bloom spires.

Alas, the mature plants are gone — victims of city maintenance crews or theft? I collected some seeds off this plant in the fall, which I will attempt to germinate this spring.

For more on the yucca, go to  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yucca