Cormaic's Garden - Plants

Garden Layout - Plants - Phormium

Phormiums, or New Zealand Flax, are a species of plant I came across primarily in the soft-landscaping works we were occasionally required to undertake as part of my business. Then, we used them as they are tough, near vandal-proof plants that need little or no attention once established.
In 1997, I was looking for an 'architectural' plant, one that would contrast sharply with the soft, floppy, intermingled foliage of the other herbaceous perennials in the garden, when I chanced upon this variety, Phormium tenax 'Sundowner' in a local garden centre. At that time, it was a dwarf, barely 300mm high and consisting of no more than half-a-dozen multi-hued blades.
That first year, I tried it in the kitchen bed, but I suspect it did not take too kindly to the heavy-ish clay of that bed, and hardly grew at all. So, in 1998 I transferred it to its own 450mm diameter pot, filled with a planting medium made up of 25% MP compost, 25% perlite and 50% loamy top-soil, and it's never looked back since.

By 1999 it was an impressive plant, more how I had imagined it to look, having 50 or more reddy-greeny-browny blades, with the tallest being 750mm high. I have it underplanted with seasonal bedding, such as snowdrops and iris in spring, fuchsias in the summer and heathers through the winter. It's completely hardy, has no known enemies and needs no special attention.