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Have a couple of 2 year old seed grown phormium tenax plants.  They are currently in a large pot....what to do with them next please?  Are they hardy?  Can they get out and spread their legs in the garden?  Will they take over?  Ideal site??  Phew!  Thanks everyone.

Nice sunny well drained site, you should have no problems Emms ;D

Wow, Em, well done you!! I'd love one of them, no space though  :'(, are they hard to grow from seed?  Lottie  ;D

Hi EJ. Pretty hardy, from New Zealand. Tenax can grow pretty big - if it's the green one leaves could be 6ft+ I guess but very architectural. The clumps will get quite big but can be split up very easily or I just remove clumplets from the edge & there you have another plant.

I bought one a little over 4 years ago and put it in a crock pot on the edge of the pond, it grew steadily so I split it up last year into 4 plants, they are not dead but recovering very slowly  :( They are quite frost hardy and will grow on from ground level if lost to freezing weather, so no bother there in Sunny Essex ;D

Had one at the last house which was 8 years old and a stunner. The roots were impenetrable when we came to dig it up before the move so I treated myself to a new one.  They both have performed well and are extremely hardy. I started the first one off in a pot and then transplanted it into the borders where it thrived and romped away.

In right conditions can grow to 3 metres tall x over 1 metre wide. Mine's currently just over 2 metres. Flowers can reach to 4.5 metres. they love full sun. Young ones can suffer in the forst, but will re-grow if a really severe/prolonged frost or wind damages it. You should be fine in Essex. Flwers are great, but I've not yet had one on mine (I think maybe the soils too poor where I put it..?)

With flowers:

Well, if full sun is required, then it looks like it will have to go out in the front garden, but I think I will hold off until next spring before planting as they are still only small plants and I would hate for them to get lost in amongst all the other plants and get strangled out.

Lottie, not hard to germinate at all, unlike Aloes and agaves which I just cannot get to germinate and I want some more of those!

EJ - Once Agaves get a certain size, they seem to reproduce by themselves. I took about 8 off of mine last year - its about 2ft ax 2ft. Baby ones grew at the base of the parent plant, and when I repotted it (and donned protective clothing - ouch  :o ), I was able to take them off easily.

I bought a small phormium from a market stall about 3 years ago. It stayed in a pot for a year until I found a spot for it in the garden. this was almost exactly 2 years ago.

2 years on it has grown HUGE (well perhaps not as big as some but big enough for me. It has now got too large as its right by the conservatory and is rather overpowering where it is. I plan to move it up the garden in the autumn. May even split it up into smaller plants as it looks like it will do that. one might look nice out the front i am thinking.

Doesn't it make you want to live in Africa to grow glories like these! ;)

The prettiest one that I have is a much smaller version with pink stripes, called Pink Panther, lives happily in a pot on the patio, next to the Agapanthus (no flowers yet) ;D