Re: high-maintenance Cordylines

Jason D wrote:
> 
> Speaking of Cordylines...
> How DOES one grow Cordyline indivisa? Every plant I've
> ever seen in the ground perishes after two years. What
> does it need in a climate much like Wellington's
> (except no summer rain whatsoever)? I believe its
> habitat is rainy and chilly, but perhaps it needs more
> than just irrigation.

Jason An awful lot of Kiwi gardeners ask the same thing. I have just
once been in one of their natural haunts and lovely big plants with
their magnficent wide leaves were sticking out of low scrub all over the
place.

I think the main problem is that they are true mountain dwellers and
need not only a deep rich soil but lots of cool and damp _all year
round_. They live narurally between 450 and 1350 metres (that's approx
1,475 ft to 4,430 ft if I have got my my arithmetic right).

This means pretty cool summers and moisture all year round. They
certainly don't last long around Wellington as I have seen in other
gardens.(Never attemptd one myself)

> And what is the reputation of (or are the instructions
> on) the other NZ Cordylines, like the lovely C.
> banksii, 

C banksii is a bit more tractable, but is definitely a forest dweller
and prefers  a fairly shady damp spot except in very humid areas, where
it is apparently best kept a bit dryer.

the short C. pumilio, the remote C. kaspar,

C pumilio is a scrub dweller from the warmer half of North Island. With
its lack of stem it can apparently look like a grass. It is much more
easy-going than the foregoing and makes a good garden plant which will
live in either sun or partial shade without requiring lots of moisture.

There is a striking hybrid between this and C banksii called 'Red
Fountain' with a veritable fountain of purplish crimson narrow foliage.
It quite early develops a short trunk, but apparently never gets very
high. I have had this one myself for two ot three years and it is
growing happily in partial shade under native trees with no coddling. It
is, though, unfortunately caviar to snails and only recently have I
begun to get a few leaves wihout holes in them. I must admit I have not
been too dilgent in getting rid of these pests -too many other things to
do!

C kasper, I have only seen in pictures. it comes from the Three Kings
islands (which also gave us Tecomanthe speciosa) and will take only the
lightest of frosts. In comparison to C australis it is quite short and
stout, and  is much branched from the base. From the pic of a well-grown
one it looks very handsome and garden worthy, but the book warns it is
subject at times to Phytophthora root rot.

Apart from the Red Fountain, me I just stick with the very fine C
australis nature grew for me among the trees of my tiny native grove.
the only snag about this is that, in its endeavour to get above their
coanopy it has grown as an enormously tall straight single pillar, now
well above anyone's head. Having attained the sunshine it is now
beginnng to branch and flower about thirty feet up in the air. Can't do
much about it I guess!

Cheers
Moira

-- 
Tony & Moira Ryan
Wainuiomata - at the Southern tip of North Island, NZ,
Lat 41°15'S, Long 174°58'E (Antipodes of Spain/Southern France)
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