Genus: Phormium

I have a Red one, its in a pot burried in my Tropical Border, It even Flowered this year..

Looks great though...

hello pansypotter my names noseypotter lol lovley plants

ow yes i guess.thanx a lot and you can split them thak you vvery much nice one

This one I split into 3 last year. He has put on growth but not as much as before. Probably as you say, to do with the wetness of the summer.

i have a few phormiums including this one.have you found they didnt realy enjoy the wet summers realy.though they are alright they just didnt flurrish.i just wonderd how yours did

I love Phormiums, I have a few of those around the garden, looking forward to seeing them fully grown.

Yes, I have one of those black-hole sheds as well......

thanks Sid, it's a water feature, i bought it last year, Brooke picked it out in the sale. it does have a pump somewhere and the birds spit water into the bowl at the bottom, only thing is i put it in the black hole i call a shed last year and - well lets just say it's such a mess in there things go in never to be seen again! it has been on the top of my list of things to do for the last 3 months! lol

Ok. I like the birds (?) in the background :-)

don't think this is big enough to divide yet anyway only a couple of years old.

I like this one also - but I know from experince they are a devil to divide!

This looks Fantastic Clever u :)

I'm really not sure Gillian as I don't know how to fold a ribbon rose. However, you fold the Phormium Leaf from the base upwards to the tip of the stem folding and turning the leaf as you go to form the 'rose' shape. Quite hard to explain but however you fold it and turn it you tend to end up with a flower like shape .... so that will do really! You can either turn the tip of the leaf in to the design or pin it with a pearl pin or something else a bit more funky! Good luck .... Gloriosa!

Love this! Is it folded the same as a ribbon rose?

what a great idea

Hi Majeek - I'm thinking about selling a few plants on e-bay. Do you mind me asking how much you paid for this plant? I'm not sure about how to price my plants...?

Many thanx for looking into this for me. This does look just like the one in my pic. Will be visiting E-Bay this evening, I think (more money, lol!)

just added some pic's for you David have a look i can't remeber the guys id name on ebay but my plant is a root division so you never know he may well offer them again this year! it does look very simular to this picture, and the picture of this his mother plant on ebays plant was just like this one in yours! may take a few years before it looks like this one but well worth the wait me thinks!

might just be able to help you out here, - i have one which looks the same variety, ofcourse mine is much smaller as it is a young plant, but if i am right it is a P. 'Cream Delight'. i bought mine from ebay last year for around £6 - but me thinks it will be a few years before it reaches this size. i'll take a pic for you and post it!

Superb colour and lovely foliage

This was one of those purchases that I bought then split. So now have two and they are thriving. I also have two varigated ones as well. I shall take a pic at the weekend.

Oooooh I do love Phormiums! This is the one I have although I have to say your one looks far healthier than mine

VERY VERY nice. The erigeron looks like it spilled out of the pot. I love the brick and stone work.

They do it on purpose David to give us sleepless nights and grey hairs from working through books and sites! Still it's worth it just to enjoy their beauty

I thought you might, Maple - me too. Wish the label had been left on.

I want one!!!

I love Phormiums - great plants

Thanks for the interesting info, majeeka. Problem is that I really don't have time or energy to deal with the Phormium before Christmas - we are going away to family - also, I have not finally decided to get rid of it! At the moment, our next project is to remove an ugly concrete slab path and replace it with old bricks in a herring bone pattern. I will need to rescue a lot of plants from each side of the current path, or husband will just bury them! I wouldn't let him do it until they were all dormant, so it's rather now or never....Main difficulty in doing this is the COLD! Temp today was at 0 degrees all day...I might well keep a record of this project and blog it so you can see what it turns out like. If/when I do deal with the Phormium I'll record that, too! Watch this space!

yes spritz completely serious, especially this time of year when quite a lot of the flowers are poor quality and very expensive, we use much more folliege for arrangements particually large ones, pedistal arrangements, for big functions, swags, cascade arrangements for over a fire place ect... all of which do need long interesting folliege for which these are perfect. but then i would gues it would depend on the kind of work your local florist does. - so maybe best to check first. they also last for ages and can be wired and looped into very modern or tropical arrangements that can stand as big as 5 or 6 foot tall. but again it does depend on the type of work that the florist does, if they are quite a small shop that does mainly gift items they may not want them. - it's a shame you don't live near to us - i would defo take it off your hands! - living so close to london we do loads of big arrangements, texture is the key with these things. - and big structual flowers and folliege is a must as most are viewed from a distance eg;- front of the church for chrismas day, or big companies christmas doo's, posh resturants, even shopping malls, the list is endless and the shop where i work also does a lot with tropical flowers this time of year, because you get a lot of reds and golds in tropical flowers and they are a better quality and last so well, look great in christmas arrangements for a splash of colour amonst all of the berries and folliege - give a wow factor! phormium leaves are a must have in this sort of arrangement. we do use the traditional roses and carnations as well as all of this and you can also put these leaves in with roses obviously if they are 10ft long they would be cut down a bit, but they are so versitle! especially when a lot of the traditional english flowers are not at there best this time of year. would say it is worth a phone call spritz.

Are you serious? They are up to about 10 feet long! Maybe I should ask the florist first, before taking them in - What do you use them for in floristry?

hi spritz - not going to get into the battle of the sexes! as my other half needs quite a lot of insentive to be dragged away from football, or rudby, or boxing ect..... let alone anything heavy or wet ect..and i do cook all his meals and clean ect.....lol but i do have one little peice of advice, if you do chop it right back, like Andrew said, i bet your local florist would be overjoyed to take all of the leaves off your hands, as they don't compost very well and they are like gold dust in floristy!

In that case mapel, you can cook all my meals, clean my house and do the washing and ironing for me too. Us single chaps can be quite domesticated in between doing all the heavy work ;-)

Cold? Wet? Heavy? Sorry Andrew these words don't compute :o)

They are very welcome, Andrew, as long as they stay there and leave my precious plants alone! (maybe I should put a notice up to direct the thrushes in the right direction!)

Hmmm - whatever happened to equality of the sexes? Seems like we men only get asked when it's cold/wet/heavy!!!
Seriously though, I removed one of similar size last autumn. The modus operandi I used was to first cut off all the leaves as near to their base as possible (this takes a long time in itself) but means you can then get at the rootball. Although not extensive, it will be heavy so dig around about 3/4 of it, then undercut it and rock the whole thing till it moves. Good luck.
If you leave it, you should know that 90% of the snails in your garden will use it as a hotel.

Errrrrr ......... tell your hubby you found out there is [ insert his favourite thing here] buried under the plant. Hand him spade and move out of the way ! Sit back, have a cuppa and plan what to plant there instead!
Well you never know it could work!!

Alternatively burn it down (like you can do with the pampas grass) and then just treat the root ball with herbicide or chop up and dig out!

I still like option 1!! lol

But how on earth would I even start to remove it???? Its leaves are like razors and as tough as leather, I don't think that my poor husband's trusty pickaxe would shift it either. So all in all, it will probably have to stay!

I know what you mean Spritz! Some plants although you understand their benefits just niggle as not being right