Re: Astelia longevity

Jaen,
I haven't your experience with growing this long
enough to know if they do have an upper age limit to
them.  I would tend to suspect either something eating
the roots or possibly a disease, and lastly perhaps
losing vigor from having bloomed.  They seem to grow
for years without blooming.  I wouldn't have thought
that they would die after blooming myself, as they do
so vigorously form immense colonies of individual
crowns, although again, I haven't seen any old enough
to show die back at the center of plants.  I would
have predicted longevity similar to Phormiums, which
seldom show dieback here in California, although all
too many revert to less colorful foliage as well as
getting too large!

The one problem with A. chathamica is certainly that
it gets so much larger than its cute appearance in a 5
gallon nursery can, and A. nivicola 'Red Gem' is a
smaller growing substitute to 2.5/3' in height, more
managebale for smaller gardens, although somewhere
inbetween being a deep purplish red and the bright
silver of 'Silver Spear'.  I don't know of any growers
selling deeper purple cultivars, and would suspect
that A. nivicola itself has quite abit of color
variability from seed propagated material.  There is a
whole range of Astelia species out there, some even
growing epiphytically on tree branches in New Zealand,
but I suspect that many like wetter conditions than
the average California garden.  No doubt they would
thrive for you with your 60 inches of rain and
cool/moist coastal summers.

I can't quite imagine gardening with 80 mile an hour
winds each winter, must be a lot of cleanup the next
day!

Regards,
David

--- Jaen Treesinger <RainForest@bengal-cat.com> wrote:
> speaking of silver spear, I have one in a raised
> rock garden on sandy 
> soil, 1/2 block from the Pacific Ocean, which is 10+
> years old, about 
> 4.5 ft high x 8+ ft. wide. It has always done quite
> well thru the 
> winters of 60 inches of rain and 60-80 mile per hour
> winds, and other 
> than the fact that it has gotten too big for its
> niche, I haven't had 
> any complaints..... yet recently it has slowly lost
> parts of itself, 
> greater numbers of exterior leaves browning, and
> finally individual 
> crowns over the last year + and this winter has
> completely keeled 
> over w/ only one crown alive.  It has flowered more
> than once over 
> the last several years.
> 
> Q:...is this demise and tendency to rejoin itself
> with compost a 
> function of age? or voles? or rain? or
> flowering?...or merely 
> responsiveness to the wishes of the gardener for a
> smaller version?
> 
> other question: is the dark purple form of Astelia
> in California 
> yet?....if so, paleeeze email me the source
> privately....gg


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