Phormium

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	Habit:  ? Height: ⇕  ? Width: ⇔ Lifespan: ⌛ Origin: ✈  ? Poisonous: ☠	Exposure: ☼  ? Water: ◍  ? Features: ✓ Hardiness: ☃ Bloom: ❀ USDA Zones:  ? Sunset Zones:
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Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture

Phormium (Greek, basket; referring to one use to which this fiber plant is put). Liliaceae. New Zealand Flax. Very stout rigid perennial herbs prized in subtropical gardening, and in New Zealand used for fiber. Leaves all radical from a short and stout branched fleshy-rooted rhizome, long-ensiform, equitant. yielding an exceedingly tough fiber: scape tall and leafless, with caducous bracts, short-branched toward top: fls. dull red or yellow, in a terminal panicle, on jointed pedicels; perianth tubular and curved, of 6 segms. connate at base, the 3 inner ones long and spreading at tip; stamens 6, exceeding the segms.; ovary oblong and 3-angled and 3-celled, bearing a slender declinate style: caps, oblone or narrower, loculicidal, bearing many compressed black seeds.—Species 2, in New Zeal, and Norfolk Isl. These plants are popular outdoor subjects in Calif, and climates of like mildness, making very bold lawn clumps. In regions of cold winters, they are known as greenhouse tub-plants or as subjects for planting out in summer in subtropical bedding. They are prop, by seeds or division; if by the latter method, it is well that they be planted outdoors in sandy soil in May and divided in September. For certain combinations and in places where it can have plenty of moisture, Phormium tenax is a valuable plant, having a very distinct and unusual character all its own. The type is easier of cultivation than the variegated kinds. Much better results can be secured by raising the typical form from seeds than by division. Seed sown in February and grown on rapidly will make good plants for bedding purposes the spring of the following year. The seedlings may be either planted out or grown in pots: in the latter case, give a rich compost and plenty of water after the plants have taken hold. With good treatment one may expect at the end of a year and a half a well-furnished specimen 3 to 3 1/2 feet high in a 6-inch pot. If one can afford room in a warmhouse, so much the better. The variegated forms require partial shade and uniform moisture; they do not come true from seed. (J. F. Cowell.) CH The above text is from the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture. It may be out of date, but still contains valuable and interesting information which can be incorporated into the remainder of the article. Click on "Collapse" in the header to hide this text.

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References

• Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture, by L. H. Bailey, MacMillan Co., 1963

External links

• w:Phormium. Some of the material on this page may be from Wikipedia, under the Creative Commons license.
• Phormium QR Code (Size 50, 100, 200, 500)