Phormium / Flax Lily for Sale

The Best New Zealand Flax Lily Varieties

Phormium Species

A striking architectural plant that adds drama to any planting scheme creating a magnificent tropical look. 

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Phormiums love a sunny, well drained location with light, loamy soil. With a hardiness rating of H4 from the RHS, they are suitable for most of the UK, apart from the colder inland and Northern areas of Scotland. They do not flower often in the UK, but they have naturalised in the Scilly isles.

Phormium tenax was the first plant to be classified during Captain Cook's second expedition to the South Pacific in 1773. It was used by Maoris in a wide range of weaving purposes, and valued for its medicinal properties. In the mid 19th century, European settlers harvested flax for export, but that industry vanished around the 1970s with the arrival of cheap synthetic fibres, although there is some cultivation for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. 
Linen flax is no relation: linen comes from a fine-leaved shrub, and the fibre is taken from the stems, not the leaves, although the weaving process was similar. 

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