Sutton woman's shock after Yucca Filamentosa grows for first time in 15 years - and is now more than seven feet tall

Joan Bavis, aged 81, has lived at her home on Primrose Court, Sutton, for 15-and-a-half years.

She said: “We’ve never had a glimmer of a stalk coming up in the middle and all of a sudden it’s shot up during this summer and my neighbour looked it up on the internet and she thinks it is a Yucca Filamentosa.

"There’s only the one stem and with ordinary Yucca’s you get several stems and they don’t grow that tall, but this one is at least more than 7ft.

“I used to like doing my garden but I’m full of osteoarthritis now in my knees and hip so I’ve had to employ a gardener.

“I don’t know the reason why it has grown all of a sudden, I think it is just that kind of plant.”