Help with my New Zealand Flax

They have all been squashed by snow. Will they come back...should I cut off all flattened fronds? They are quite large and established in the ground. Any advice is appreciated.

 

Cut them back (a daunting task), but you may want to wait a couple weeks or so, till the last of the frigid temperatures pass. Most likely they will recover - at least that has been my experience in the past.

 

Thanks. I am wondering what their rate of growth is? ie: will they just be stumps all summer?

 

I have seen them hard hit this winter, about ten years ago we had a similiar weather event, most Phormium, Escallonia and Ceanothus that I saw, didnt recover. But hey, there's no rush, let it be or cut it back and wait for a couple months to see what happens. :)

 

Thanks for the help.

 

The root of the problem is above-mentioned plants just not being hardy where most people live here. Better results with tender plants had at the beach because of heat being given off by salt water at night producing higher minimum temperatures. Even with favorable soils and exposure, if it gets below the minimum temperature for a plant it will still die back or die. Some very frequently sold and planted items like Pink Princess = 'Frades' escallonia, Orchid Rockrose - and New Zealand Flax - are actually only hardy to something like 15 degrees F.

 

Thanks Ron. I knew I was pushing it with the Flax, it was nice while it lasted.

 

I potted my Phormium, covered them and still lost one to frost, this year will go down in the books as the winter that would not end! but, end up decimating all our semi tropicals!

 

" as the winter that would not end! but, end up decimating all our semi tropicals!"

Ah well ours was the summer heat and dry that would not end. A lot of the European type trees and plants had their leaves severly fried. Not just sunburned. We have had a little rain and it is amazing how things shed the dead leaves and keep going. The burned forest still needs more rain to do it's thing but it will. It's possible the flax centre may have been protected by the dry out leaves and may go again. Most of the tree ferns that were exposed to the dry here, look terrible with their withered fronds but they too are ready to burst forth again from their crowns.
I guess it's all part of the cycle. You loose some and many more keep going
Liz

 

The recent severe subarctic winter weather, is not forgiving this year....Eucalyptus g.
all froze in Port Moody, the rest of Vancouver???? Heating bills rise, water pipes burst,
heart attacts rise due to snow shovelling, is this living in the far north....? The conditions were much worse further inland and north of Metro Vancouver. There is no place like home! Here's to a spring thaw, and recouping our loss of plants to fate...