Flax is indestructible in landscape

SCRIPPS HOWARD

Freeway designers loved to landscape Los Angeles highways with flax in the 1960s.

Hard to kill, the tall strap leaf plants seemed impervious to heat, smog and drought.

They’d survive when everything but the iceplant gave up the ghost.

In freeway plantings you’ll find green Phormium tenax, as well as its white striped sibling ‘Variegata.’ Slightly smaller ‘Atropurpurea’ offered bronze foliage.

This species makes a huge plant that can exceed 6 feet in height and diameter when mature.

It was well scaled for the magnitude of freeway plantings but overwhelmed many residential gardens.

While New Zealand flax enjoyed a period of mid-century popularity, they fell out of favor soon after.

With the dawn of the 21st century, they have been reborn to become the drama queens of trendy garden designs.

New Zealand flax was so named because it produces fibers similar to those of European flax plants.

It has been used by the Maori for a thousand years.

The long leaves are harvested for fibers much the same way Native Americans used yucca and agave.

The Maori plaited the leaves into mats and baskets.

They used the roots for dye and medicine.

The flesh separated from the fibers made soap.

Virtually every part of this plant was useful.

While Phormiums were on hiatus here in the States, New Zealand growers were busy solving flax breeding problems.

While these plants seldom flower early in life, their eventual spires of bronze blooms are pollinated by the Tui Bird.

Of the 2,000 seeds produced by a plant each year, only 10 will be viable.

Margaret Jones of New Zealand Flax Hybriders in Tauranga is credited with some of the best results in the 1980s by using the Tui for cross-pollination.

This yielded her Maori Rainbow Hybrids, some of the best varieties on the market.

They feature extraordinary color plus conveniently smaller stature.

The largest Rainbow Hybrid, at 5 feet is ‘Maori Chief’, which features wide leaves in bronze with showy pink and red stripes.

Smaller ‘Maori Maiden’ is 2 to 3 feet with luscious dark salmon leaves fading to pink-yellow with greenbronze margins.

‘Maori Sunrise’ is 3 feet with apricot leaves striped in pink with bronze margins.

One of the most striking new introduction is ‘Platt’s Black’, raised by G.

Platt of Auckland, New Zealand.

It is considered the darkest of all Phormiums, with arching leaves and near-black coloring.

It can be difficult to find the new varieties.

While they are quite common in New Zealand, cultivars are slow to reach the American market.

With so many nearly identical plants, there’s confusion over varietal names and many are simply sold as “red hybrid” or “brown hybrid.” To learn more about Phormiums in general, Fernwood Nursery is a great place to start online (www.houseleeks.freeserve.co.uk) .

The flax section is extensive, including breeding, cultivation, great color comparisons and planting ideas.

The reference section has tons of links to other Phormium sites.

San Marcos Growers, a wholesale nursery in Santa Barbara, Calif.

(www.smgrowers.com), one of the best sources for new Phormiums in the United States.

Its Web site features 43 different varieties, with good photos and detailed descriptions of height and color.

The comments on cultivation of each type plus specific information on cold-hardiness is invaluable.

Because San Marcos is wholesale only, its plants are carried by garden centers in California and Texas.

If you live elsewhere, use this Web site to find the cultivars you want and have your local garden center special-order them from other sources.

Phormiums are the most exciting new plants to enter the American marketplace.

They offer a rainbow of color and exciting form all year without flowers.

This quintessential plant of mid-century modern freeways is coming round again, this time with a whole new look and feel.

Its size may have been civilized, but the colors have definitely gone wild.

Maureen Gilmer is a horticulturist and host of “Weekend Gardening” on DIY-Do It Yourself Network.

E-mail her at mo@moplants.com.

For more information, visit www.moplants.com or www.diynetwork.com.