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Fernwood Home > Phormiums > Phormium bed 2001 |
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Phormium bed 2001 |
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06 Oct 2005 |
This page: Progress through 2001 |
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Progress through 2001 |
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After a cold frosty night the leaves pf phormiums tend to curl in at the edges and the leaf surfaces develop a slightly translucent appearance. However, they appear to recover quickly as the day warms up and the frost disappears. By the end of February the plants were beginning to show the adverse effects of a number of freezing nights. The lowest temperature we measured was -8°C but there were many nights when the temperature was below zero. The plants worst affected were the softer growing, pink coloured varieties such as 'Maori Sunrise' and 'Maori Maiden'. The central parts of many of the variegated leaves tend to turn brown, especially the yellow parts. The base of the central leaf of each fan (the most recently grown part) is often the most badly affected part and in some cases the whole central leaf collapses. Despite the frost damage the display still looks very colourful. Plants are showing signs of growth again and towards the end of April we trimmed back many of the older leaves and any of the others that were looking damaged. At the beginning of May there were large spaces between some of the plants where they had been trimmed. By June the plants were in active growth and were beginning to fill out again. Some varieties have grown much more rapidly than others but the whole display provides a colourful centre-piece to the garden.
Despite our intention to thin out the bed this year we decided to leave it to grow until next year. Throughout the summer and autumn it continued to look great and even in December it was just as colourful.
Next page > Phormium bed in 2002 < Back to 2000 or 1999 or jump to 2003
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