[greenasiamcabbagelooking]

we have a large...ish (5ft) phormium that is putting most of our patio in the shade.

we have nowhere else to transplant it to in our garden so i am going to offer it up for free on our local community website (caithness.org)

could someone please advise me of the best time of year for moving this 'beast' ?!

thanks

[woodburner]

I don't think it matters, they are tougher than new boots!

[poultrygeist]

Ours is about 10ft (at least) high and about 12-15ft across. Must be a good 20 years old or more. We moved in 2.5 years ago.

I've read they live about 20-25 years so we're wondering what happens when it starts to die back because at the moment the leaves are like leather. I'd be interested to know how deep and wide the roots go.

Rob

[New shoot]

You can move even big Phormiums so long as you take a decent root ball with them, but it is easier to split them sometimes. They have roots more like a big herbaceous plant than a tree or shrub, but they are tough and not easy to split with a spade.

I've dug a couple out of gardens and used an old pruning saw to cut chunks off for replanting. The newer stuff round the outside is best for this and you need to make sure you get a decent fan of leaves with a growing point on the top.

Most big Phormiums you see for sale are field grown, then lifted and containerised and division is how many nurseries propagate stock, so don't be scared to have a go greenasiam.  If you lift your plant once the worse of the weather has passed, you could keep a chunk for you and offer divisions for free or swapsies with reasonable confidence they should all take.

New shoot

[greenasiamcabbagelooking]

thanks for your replies
feel a lot more confident now about tackling this,
i think other gardeners would be willing to take smaller divisions rather than one big plant

thanks again