This bold dish of bronze New Zealand flax holds its own, as few plants could, against a soaring 3-story backdrop. The three plants in this container, ringed by Harvest Snow marguerite daisies, have replaced the original three that had become overgrown. (Our hearty crew handled the job with ease.) A transplant from New Zealand (!) flax looks so at home here you might think it's a native.

Beach Plant of the Month:
New Zealand Flax, Phormium tenax

     While we're frantically beating back the slugs, horsetail, and fungi, gardeners all over the world are moss green with envy over the almost perfect climate we enjoy for growing things here in the Pacific Northwest. Of course, from our vantage point, at the fringe of the rainforest and oceans ragged edge, we could do with a little less damp and gentler winds. Nevertheless, one of our advantages of our maritime mildness is that we can successfully cultivate plants that are, strictly speaking, outside our zone limitations.

     One of these plants is the striking New Zealand flax, by turns bold and spiked or glossy and graceful arching in the wind. It is more widely available in its dusky bronze or tropical looking green, less so in its burgundy red or variegated forms. These sparkling striped varieties come in shades of green, olive, cream, yellow, apricot, coral pink and warm red. Yes, New Zealand flax can be a little hard to find, especially in the burgundy and variegated forms, but it can add so much in the way of focus, punctuation, drama, and gravitas to a grouping or whole landscape, its worth the chase. It may soon become one of your (many) favorites, as it has for us.

    Give New Zealand flax well drained soil and it will take care of itself. Choose your site carefully. Though it is a vigorous plant and will become a large clump, from 4 - 7 feet tall and as wide, it will not become invasive. If it gets to be so happy that it overwhelms its bounds, it can be divided as you would divide a (very large!) daylily. Ask a friend to come help dig - share the task and the flax! (And if you lose a friend, at least you got the flax divided!)

     An harsh winter or one with sudden freezing winds, like those we get from time to time, will leave a flax somewhat shredded and burned, even killing a young plant. Just trim out the ruined leaves with sharp pruners, being careful not to cut the new swords sprouting from the crown which each hold a new fan of leaves. Some suggest using the phormiums as you would a bedding plant or only in containers that could be wintered over in a greenhouse. Can a smaller plant be brought in for the winter? I'm going to find out with a beautiful little red variegated specimen that might be right at home in our sunroom.

Some ideas for effective companions:
In beds or containers of otherwise "flighty" annuals
With anything of fine texture
With plants with silvery foliage (especially with bronze flax)
With warm tones - chartreuse, cream, yellow, apricot, salmon, orange, warm reds (the colors of the variegated types)

Examples:
Blue oat grass, Japanese Forest Grass
Russian Sage, Nepeta & lavender varieties, Frosty Morn sedum
Autumn Joy sedum, crocosmia, daylilies in above colors, Sum & Substance hosta Rosy
Glow barberry, pieris japonica Flame of the Forest, golden elder

Also:
Looks great with river rock and/or driftwood
Looks very much at home near the water