Re: high-maintenance Cordylines
- Subject: Re: high-maintenance Cordylines
- From: D* P*
- Date: Tue, 04 Jun 2002 20:14:45 +0100
A couple of hundred miles further south than Tim, I find C indivisa to
be fairly trouble-free. Seedlings I raised 3 years ago have had to
cope with some pretty awful neglect and have been periodically
roasted, dehydrated, waterlogged, starved and occasionally frosted.
The largest is now a fine rosette of very broad foliage well over 2
feet high and is showing its appreciation of rather better growing
conditions provided for it recently. I have it in full sun, but the
roots are kept constantly cool and moist.
I doubt if it would cope with prolonged freezes of minus 5C or more,
so from a US point of view I would put it as a USDA Zone 9b plant.
Other species I have here are C banksii (very reliable) Cordyline
stricta (always burns badly with the first of the summer sun, but
quickly settles down) and C. australis 'Torbay Red'. This is possibly
the finest red form with transparent, ruby edges to the young leaves
which glow in the setting sun. The only problem with it is that it
must be given a fairly rich diet to prevent the foliage from becoming
that rather dull brown of many cultivars.
The straight species also makes an appearance every year via jackdaws
and crows, which feast on the berries in winter. However, I always
rip out the seedlings since they come up like grass and can cause
paving cracks to widen very quickly.
A friend has a few plants of a supposedly very hardy form of C.
terminalis, which I've so far resisted. Apparently it can just cope
with occasional, short-lived drops to minus 3C without any damage, but
is supposed to defoliate and lose it upper stems at minus 5C. As a
plain, green-leaved plant, it has exhibited little to recommend it,
although it may become more attractive once it starts to trunk up.
Dave Poole
Torquay UK
