I saw these at Rona (Revy) today. Interesting looking plant. Anyone have any experience with these? Are they cold hardy for our climate (Zone 8)?
Phormium do grow in our climate, sometimes without much winter protection, but I expect that our recent mild weather patterns has allowed these plants to survive. With cold weather they will die back as they are essentially quite tender. Allow they may be killed to the ground, you may find that they do grow back but this may take as long as two years. Many gardeners like to grow phormiums in large pots so they can store them for the winter in a protected spot like an open garage. Grown this way you may have them for many years, and you may also have an enormous plant to show for it.
Ah, the sword leaves. Back then during my college time I liked to play with these, stabbing my friends with their pointy leaves. But can they actually hurt someone?
