Emergency with a phormium!

Ruth tries to salvage shoots from an old fading plant

- Ruth Hayes

WE have a well-established bronze phormium in a wooden half-barrel, and after years of excellent service I think the summer’s drought has finally done for it.

Despite feeding and watering (with grey water) its fronds are brittle and bleached. I shall be sorry to see it go, and in an effort to save some of it I decided to pot up some of the offsets in the hope that they will bounce back.

This is a job that should normally be done in spring, but I fear that if I don’t act now I’ll lose the whole plant. The offsets each had robust roots that will hopefully stand them in good stead.

Phormiums, or New Zealand flax, are long-lived evergreen plants with strappy leaves in green, purple, cream or bronze. They add definition to traditional English gardens and work well in gravel planting schemes, though they may not thrive in cold, wet exposed sites.