Saturday 10 June 2017

Phormium on Steroids?

10 days ago I showed you that my Phormium was going to flower with this pic



Today after a week of a lot of rain and not much sun it looks like this



I don't know what has been different this year but in a local town in the beds around a well known supermarket are lots of phormium and yes they are all coming into flower. Must be the year for it!!

Meanwhile in the Arid bed, I have managed to tie up the Dasylirion Serratifolium


which was a feat. The fronds have thorns that are 'inward' facing, so if you are unfortunate enough to put your arm into the fronds, they do not like to let go of you with out cutting you badly!! I have done this because I have (Cymbalaria) Ivy leaf Toadflax. Quite an invasive little blighter, normally I wouldn't mind it in a cottage style garden, but not winding its way around my arid bed.

I did initially try to unwind it, but kept cutting my arms to bits. So after asking advice from my Hardy Tropical friends, I decided to tie up the 'Dasy'. and see what is going on in the ground.


Initially it doesn't look too bad, that is until you pull back the gravel ...... it is horrendous...


a total mat of roots....


so I have hit the whole area with major weed killer, I am hoping it won't affect the 'Dasy' but if it does then it is a loss I will have to accept.
What ever happens I think I will have to dig out the whole of this section of the bed out to get rid of the roots/seeds etc. Unfortunately now its here I think I will have a battle on my hands to eradicate it!


The Prickly Pear (Opuntia) although growing is not looking good, so I decided to take it out. Whilst doing this I have disturbed a number of ants nests. The arid bed is ideal for ants as they love it so dry, but they are so bad as they add soil, undermine roots and sometimes even eat roots. So I have been given a number of suggestions as to how to get rid of them which I will try out and probably write another post about it.


I have placed one of my new cactus where the Opuntia was and put all the cuttings of it into a box and posted it to a friend who has 3 tortoise. Apparently they love it.

If I do have to dig out the end of the bed, then it might be the ideal time to add drystone walling around this end. Its something I have wanted to do for for the whole bed but is not a) cheap, b) easy to do. Whilst I wait to see if the weed killer has worked I will do some further research.

TTFN





4 comments:

  1. Good luck with the weed eradication, and hopefully it didn't harm the dasy, fingers crossed! Love the phormium, quite a specimen you have there!

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    Replies
    1. I went and checked today and there is more of the Ivy leaf Toadflax growing and winding its way around the Dasy :(

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  2. The garden is looking good, so I hope you can get rid of that nasty invasive plant.

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