pragmaculture:I have a new thing for our native New Zealand flax (Phormium spp.), known as Harakek
pragmaculture: I have a new thing for our native New Zealand flax (Phormium spp.), known as Harakeke in Maori. At the moment I’m starting to think about the plantings we will have for the small piece of “formal garden” we’re going to have out the back once the deck is finished and the trellis is up. I’m going to do something completely different to the “country cottage” feel out the front and the wildy forest garden at the very back. Yep, it’s gonna be a horribly architectural modern Aotearoa grass garden. With that in mind, I bought a single specimen of this flax called, pleasingly, Darkdelight. I tipped it out, split it up and hey presto! Now I have thirteen! I will do the same with a couple of other varieties, because people have been breeding some amazing coloured ones. As well as the harakeke, I will plant a bunch of New Zealand Blueberry (Dianella nigra, unfortunately poisonous to humans but so super cute), some black bamboo that I will “appropriate” from my parents’ large patch, as well as purple asparagus I will probably grow from seed, because I can’t help slipping some edibles in there. I have to say I feel very virtuous planting natives, especially as my interest in them - aesthetically and ecologically - is something of a new development! -- source link
#new zealand#native plant#grass garden#phormium#propagation#pragmaqueue