Phormium tenax (common names: New Zealand flax)

I divided one (tiny in comparison to yours) last year - it was one heck of a job and took hours! The only advice I can offer other than the above is that I found a hacksaw very useful for sawing the plant in half! Sounds brutel, but it was out of despiration in the end and the plant has bounced back no problems at all. Good luck...

I agree with John and Andrew, they do grow very large in this area.
Yours must weigh something like half a ton.
We divided some into quarters a few years ago with a chain saw, leaving in 1 quarter.
They are the same size again now.

Thanks Andrew. Glad someone with experience of large plants could put some detail on. I'm just glad I didn't get it too wrong. LOL.

John.

Having dug out a well-established phormium last autumn, I can offer some advice.
While the roots are not excessively deep, they are tenacious. To reduce the circumference, you need to get right in at ground level and look for bunches of leaves forming crowns. These can be seperated off gradually with a sharp spade and replanted.
Digging the whole thing out is a big job and you would still need to seperate some crowns off before replanting.
Good luck

Hi Meisy. That is one very big Phormium. I have I think 8 or 10 different ones but nothing approaching that size.

I am therefore guessing (educated guess from experience of smaller plants).

I don't suppose you want to go to the expense of bringing in a mechanical digger but I would certainly bring in a strong guy with a very sharp digging instrument, or even instruments i.e. super quality spade. I wouldn't worry about breaking the crown. it will I am sure, recover. And so will the bits you cut off as long as you take plenty of root with them so go deep. I reckon it will be pretty hard work but I would split it. This is a normal method of propagation anyway. If you get to lift a very large section of root that is very woody, you can even get a hand saw to cut it up. If you do manage to lift it as a whole (and I would doubt it) then simply hack it into several pieces and replant. You can always sell any parts you don't want to transplant.

Somebody with experience of this size of plant (a New Zealander?) may disagree but I am pretty sure you can be brutal without killing it.

John.

I find your monster...beautiful.

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

I love Phormiums - great plants

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

hello pansypotter my names noseypotter lol lovley plants

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

So many people are wise to potting up their tender perennials...wish I had done that with some of mine...the digging is getting a bit tough on my old bones!

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

Looks great though...