How do i care for this

http://www.ehow.com/list_7574488_diseases-yucca-plant.html

is it a pampus or phornium ? hard to tell in pic, if pampus you can burn them but not a good idea with pole and tree next to it, phornium you can chop all the dead leaves and should sprout again, strange place to plant something so big unless they didnt realise at the time,

Thanks sixpence..good link but is it a yucca?

Again sanbaz thanks but I've no idea what , why or when regards this one..in part it looks fine and it does fill the space quite well but it's obviously struggling..I've tried talking to it and sharing a cider one very light evening but to no avail..I should get out more hehe

Looks like very old phormium to me... but close up would be nice, so we could tell for sure.
well - not sure about cider, definitely you need to get out more and have a more chats with it, lol
and maybe a little face lift? lol... I mean cut off dead leaves, a bit of vitamins - ups - fertilizer in spring?

I thought it looked like a phormium as well. Remove all the obviously dead leaves - they should pull of the plant but if not, cut them off as low down as possible. This will take some time and effort as there are fibres running the length of the leaves so cutting them is not as easy as it sounds. Give it a good feed when it warms up a bit and make sure it doesn't go short of water this year and see if it improves.

Thank you all for replies..

I did pull out all dead leaves last year and it looked good for a while, I weeded round it and put down plenty of compost..didn't feed it though..

The way it looks now is exactly as it did before the work..but I will try again..I was wondering is there any value in reducing it's bulk/size?

Strangely enough...I love it! I know....weird or what!

I know where you are coming from Izzy..its got quite a presence..i just feel a little guilty i dont know how to care for it other than my inane stories and the odd cider..hehe

As it's wedged right against the eucalpytus, it's probably pretty starved but you do tend to get dead growth on a phormuim each year anyway. They tend to make tightly packed crowns at the base so it may be possible to get the corner of a spade in and lever one or two away to reduce it but you'll be left with a bit of a lop-sided plant

I would go with Andrewr and try to remove the outer crowns to make it smaller + have more plants for around the garden(pot them up until you need them) or keep them in pots. But what about extending the border and adding grasses, bigger ones at the back to blend in with the Phormium ....just a thought. You could soften it at the front with hardy Geranims for colour or Heathers depending on your soil :o))))

No comment then?? Lol

thank you andrew and annella for the feedbback..im loathe to reduce its impact but feel if i did it right it could be ok. Im tempted by the idea of a new border..but given my record with the others im wondering if thats an idea i should pass on..but thanks again for the feedback..and annella's patience

share another cider with it :) im sure it will be fine