Horticultural Notes

3′ x 3′      New Zealand flax is an excellent, slow growing, accent plant.  Phormiums are very tough perennials that require full sun or light shade, moderate water and a fairly well drained soil.  Good at all elevations.  Maori Sunrise is a great mid-sized selection with leaves colored salmon pink with pale yellow and bronze edging.

Watch out for mealybug, they get into the crown of the plant, between the leaf blades.  Oddly enough I have found that planting large numbers of Phormium seem to have more mealybug than just a few.  Ants are farming these insects, as they do with aphids and scale.  We use Talstar granules, a synthetic pyrethoid, to sprinkle in and around the crown.  This keeps the ants away and really slows down the mealybug too.