Learn How to Grow and Care for New Zealand Flax

Phormium spp.

Good-looking and dependable, the lengthy, sword-like foliage of New Zealand flax (Phormium spp.) is good for including daring, upright followers of structural curiosity all through the backyard.

A vigorous evergreen perennial, the colourful, bladed leaves are available in a pleasant vary of variegations and wealthy shades of bronze, burgundy, chartreuse, greens, gold, pink, orange, or crimson!

Extremely decorative and used primarily as a foliage plant, the leathery foliage grows in stemless basal rosettes that may attain as much as six ft tall.

Mature specimens additionally produce towering summer season scapes topped with panicles of tubular flowers, including to their stylish and colourful profile.

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The intense, nectar-rich blooms of orange, crimson, or yellow are engaging to butterflies, hummingbirds, and different pollinators.

However the fibrous, powerful leaves are proof against deer and rabbits.

Their kind provides eye-catching architectural enchantment to beds, borders, and poolside patios in addition to courtyard, gravel, or Mediterranean gardens.

As chilly tender crops, additionally they shine in containers – to allow them to simply be loved in areas exterior of their hardiness vary.

New Zealand flax can also be salt- and drought-tolerant in addition to being a sensible selection for coastal settings.

Do you may have a spot or two in your backyard for a few of these sharply trendy kiwi accents? Then let’s lower to the chase and be taught all about New Zealand flax care and cultivation!

Right here’s what you’ll discover forward:

New Zealand flax, aka phormium, refers back to the solely two species within the Phormium genus, P. tenax and P. cookianum (syn. P. colensoi), each native to New Zealand.

Historically used for the dear fibers, P. tenax is the hardier of the 2 and is most frequently used for horticultural breeding, though some cultivars have P. cookianum parentage as nicely.

P. tenax is the extra upright plant with the blades stiff proper to the tip whereas the tops of P. cookianum crops are arched – cultivars can characteristic stiff or floppy suggestions.

Backyard cultivars vary in measurement from 4 to 6 ft tall and vast, however the flower scapes might attain as much as 10 ft tall!

The upswept panicles bear vibrant cylindrical flowers which might be eagerly sought by bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds, creating engaging seed pods after blooming.