Re: Phormium tenax
- To: Mediterannean Plants List
- Subject: Re: Phormium tenax
- From: T* &* M* R*
- Date: Wed, 13 Oct 1999 16:43:29 +1300
- References: <0.18018355.2534f485@aol.com>
K1MIZE@aol.com wrote:
>
> In a message dated 10/12/99 1:07:06 PM EST, tim@eddy.u-net.com writes:
>
> << Phormium tenax is tough as old boots. >>
>
> I second this opinion. My grandmother used to have a huge old specimen of
> the purple-leaved kind beside her driveway. When she wanted to get rid of
> it, the task fell to yours truly, and I never struggled so with anything in
> my life. I think it would have been easier to take out a grove of that
> bamboo Barbara Sargent is fighting.
Yeah! Right on!! :-) Some years ago, Moira and I were asked to remove
one of the "standard" non-vareigated ones from a garden where it had
outgrown its welcome, and as we wanted it for the grounds of a club we
were involved in (where there was plenty of room for it) we agreed to
try. We recruited some other club members, plus one or two of our sons,
borrowed a trailer and took axes, crowbars, our strongest forks and
spades and prepared for battle!
It took the entire crew of us, working hard, all day to break up that
monster, get it out of the ground, and into the trailer in separate
"fans" (it filled the entire trailer). We took it to the (sailplane)
club's airfield and "shoved the bits in" quite roughly along a steep
bank that needed cover. A few failed to take (in very hostile
conditions, and competing unaided with hares and rabbits) the remainder
- 20+ years later - are now handsome big plants.
One other warning about this plant. If planted near a pathway, the
strong, strap-like leaves trail along the ground around the plant for a
radius of several feet, and can trip the unwary. Also, if you get strong
winds, the action of these same leaves whipped about by the wind can
sweep away any small plant etc within their reach.
Tony
--
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata,
New Zealand (astride the "Ring of Fire" in the SW Pacific).
