Want To Love Your Flax Lily Plants Even More?

Flax lily variegata (Dianella Tasmanica) is a tough perennial that provides contrasting foliage to evergreen plants. It's a low-growing, grass-like Florida- Friendly plant that will enhance any sunny or partially sunny Florida garden. Not only is Flax lily attractive to combine with other favorite perennials, but it can be utilized to border a planting bed, mass on its own and it even works great in containers. Flax lily helps conserve water because it is drought-resistant. You don't have to worry about losing it in winter either since it's cold hardy in Florida. What's not to love!

A pathway in my front garden lined with *overgrown* Flax lily *before* pruning this week.

Here's the thing. When Flax lily is tidy and fresh, it provides a beautiful display of green and cream colored foliage to the landscape. However, when it is not maintained or maintained improperly it appears ratty and overgrown. You don't have to let your Flax lily plants remain in the ratty and overgrown category. There's an easy fix to this problem!

Spring is the perfect time to get out in your garden and be sure your Flax lily plants are pruned and tidied. Here's a blog post that explains how-to trim your Flax lily plants for best results. 

These are the same flax lilies as above *after* I've pruned out all the spent growth.

I'm working my way around my garden this week cleaning all of my Flax lily plants out (I have hundreds). It's a once-a-year project and it is SO worth the time it takes. For the rest of the year, I'll just enjoy them.

Don't be afraid. Prune away. You can see each plant looks a little barren when I'm finished. Believe me. They grow back quickly. Go ahead ... get out in your garden and get it done! You will love your Flax lily plants so much more when you do!

Have a safe and happy Memorial Day weekend. Meems


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Flax Lily Goodness

I'm definitely noticing variegated flax lily (Dianella tasmanica variegata) more and more in commercial and residential landscaping throughout central Florida. Personally, I'm convince it is one of THE BEST PLANTS on the planet. Are you as in love as I am? People generally seem to really appreciate it or not-so-much care for it.

First of all, there are few plants that do almost equally as well in sun or shade. Flax lily can tolerate both. In my experience it excels in partial or what I call filtered sun. Meaning it can take a good deal of direct sunlight but appreciates a break from an all day sunbath. If you have places in your garden where the sun shines directly for a few hours and then receives some shade as the sun shifts OR places on the outermost edge of a tree canopy where the sunlight streams through the branches for most of the day flax lily will give you all you ever hoped for in a perennial plant. It is highly drought resistant and considered to be Florida-Friendly requiring very little attention.

I like it as a border plant. Not everyone prefers using a border plant with flax lily's mature height (1-3') and same width. But I definitely do. It is one of the plants I chose as a continuum in the front garden. When grass is removed completely from an area it can also eliminate the calming or anchoring point for the eye when scanning the space. In consideration for minimizing confusion it helps to think about creating focal points and discovering what's the best use of plants to offer a similar sense of calm in the absence of the lawn. Repeat the same variety of a plant effectively in a lawn-less garden and it pulls the space together in a peaceful manner.

For many weeks now each grass-like, variegated flax lily plant is loaded with clusters of tiny flowers suspended atop wispy stalks above the vertical clusters.

For more information on maintenance of flax lily you can read a previous post on this subject here.

Dividing these plants is a very doable option also for adding more of them to your garden on a budget.

Are you a fan of flax lily? Why? Why not?

****words in red are links to references or posts for more information on the subject.****

Flax Lily :: How-to Maintenance

Flax Lily (Dianella tasmanica 'Variegata') has been utilized to the fullest at Hoe and Shovel and several posts have been previously written about my admiration for it. By some standards it is probably over-used. When I first fell in love with it I implemented it mostly as an edging plant for curvaceous borders. Once established I began dividing it and placing it in container plants as vertical interest and sometimes clumping it in groups within a planting bed.

It IS a versatile Florida-Friendly plant with that much-loved upright habit that tends to draw my attention in many plant varieties.

I almost always recommend flax lily to my clients as it is a low maintenance, highly drought tolerant, cold hardy in winter plant that remarkably adapts well to either the sun or shade.

What's NOT to love, right?

Over time I've discovered that it has some attributes that aren't particularly exciting.

The most noticeable being the older, outer leaves on each fan blade eventually die and turn brown. We've all heard about flax lily rust, too. I can live with them showing a little bit of rust but along with the aging leaves the overall plant can eventually become unsightly.

With hundreds (mostly from divisions) of flax lily planted throughout the garden it was time to find a solution.

If you've been wondering what to do to help your flax lily come alive and return to that beautiful vigor you first loved about these great plants follow along for a simple how-to pictorial on cleaning them out.

One by one it was my aim to clean out every 'blade' that displayed any sign of death. It was a scary thought at first. What in the world would be left of each plant? Rather than pulling out just the brown leaves I decided to boldly cut back the entire blade. Each one displaying any sign of age. Plant by plant.

Using a sharp pair of hand pruners remove the entire blade by cutting it at the base. This is a good time to pull back some of the leaves (or mulch) that have piled up around the bottom. No mulch at the base is good for the plant in any instance as it helps air circulation and allows for better drainage to the roots.

While it seemed like a severe move at first to remove so much foliage from each plant (debris from two pruned plants above) I have a good feeling that with Florida's heat and humidity they will return quickly. And be healthier going into the summer.

It was encouraging to see all the new growth/blades revealed once the old ones were thinned out.

And the final results were refreshing ... much thinner and smaller in size but so healthy in appearance. Completing this task actually gave the whole garden a bit of a face lift.

How does your flax lily grow? I see these issues all around town so I'm wondering if gardeners have had the same experience as I have here and what did you do about it???

Happy gardening!!!

How to Create a Tropicalesque Pathway

The inspiration first came a couple of months ago when 2 red (false) banana plants, Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii' were purchased. On a whim I should add. They were 'end of summer' leftovers at my favorite local nursery and cost a mere $5 each. My resolve to stick with only Florida-friendly and native plants melted away under the pressure of hot, steamy weather conditions.

It's kind of hard for me to believe there weren't already some of these magenta veined beauties around here. But since there wasn't, some contemplation ensued deciding where they would be planted.


Considering the partial sun exposure they prefer one of them was placed in a curvy nook at the feet of some Schefflera arboricola 'Variegata' shrubs. So close in fact that the red banana appears to be growing out of the clump of them from certain angles. This gives the appearance that it is well established and has been there longer than it really has.
To finish off that vignette some lotus begonias were split up and layered in front of the banana and then the variegated liriope was dug up and a new boundary was established curving around all of it after the bird bath was moved there also.

The second red banana was placed just down the way and at the edge of the farthest back planting bed. Both can be seen from almost every angle in the back garden. One draws the eye to the other.
The swirl of continuous new leaves shooting up from the center of them convinces me they are happy where sited.

When the ginormous gift of Giant Spider Lily Crinum augustum 'Queen Emma' was offered my design inspiration shifted into high gear for an entirely new transformation of another grassy area begging to be renovated.

Between the new red banana and the newly planted crinum was a wide grassy pathway that swerved in and out along the edges of some large planting beds.
A (before) photo from May 2009 gives you a good idea of how the grassy swath made its way to the back of the property where the compost piles are hidden to the right or to the left a flagstone path that winds through more planting beds.
Let's Back Up and Have a Look at the How-to's

~The first thing to do to create the pathway is to determine the shape and lines of the new path.
~In this case the left edge was my starting point. Measure out from the edge of the existing planting bed to mark off the width desired. For my path the considerations included leaving safe passage for the width of my wheelbarrow which makes many trips to that back corner on any gardening day. And then the passage width of the riding mower which is driven to the back to dump grass clippings onto the compost pile.
~ Using PVC pipe I hammered in some stakes along the edge in a design shape that made a nicely curved pathway. I never like to copy the exact line of the curve from the opposite side. Creating curves a little shorter or longer on the new side keeps the pathway from being too predictable.
~I started this project digging the grass up. At some point it dawned on me to try the lasagna method of smothering the existing grass with newspapers. This made the project go much faster.

You can see here the crinum has not been transplanted from my neighbor's yet. But, all the while my pathway is being formed, I'm scheming about the best place for it.

~As I don't ever use cypress mulch, it was decided to use pine needles layered over the newspaper. Pine needles (purchased by the bundle) have a nice warm, peaceful appearance to me reminding me of nature's woodsy pathways seen so often in parks and conservation areas.
Changing the grassy path into a more narrow and cozy path meant that plants were dug up from other places and added along the length of it to close in the borders of the pathway. The next previously-grassy inlet beyond the curve from the red banana was filled out with plants like the one above. My neighbor passed this wonderful, deeply colored foliage plant along to me last year. I have no idea the name of it but it likes lots of shade. It blooms a spiking red bloom in the winter. How fun is that! Edit: Name of plant is Stromanthe

The back side of the leaves are very deep magenta. With several of them already planted behind the variegated liriope border bringing one out in front of the border gives a sense of continuity and yet doesn't exactly mimic any other niche on the pathway.

Looking toward the center of the above photo is a view of how buddha-belly plant, Jatropha podagrica and Hardy star begonia, heracleifolia and holly ferns were brought out even further still working to slenderize the new pathway.

What says tropical more than bromeliads! Walking around my garden I picked out the lighter colored foliage to transplant in scalloped curves inward continuing to taper the width of the new trail. The chartreuse hues of this foliage picks up the sunlight that sneaks in between the oak tree branches towering high above.
Even though most of the plants were dug up and divided from existing places at Hoe and Shovel there was a need for a few purchases. The Black Taro Alocasia plumbea I adore and use in another place in the front garden was found at a nursery in north Florida and packed in the car with traveling luggage one weekend.

Lots of Flax Lily Dianella tasmanica 'Variegata' divided, that will fill out over time, fashions the new inside boundary and wraps around the crinum lily. You may remember it was sited about 4 feet out in front of an existing retaining wall that serves as the edge for trailing purple queen and chartreuse potato vine.

Here's another view to compare with almost the same angle below for a pretty good idea of the "before" and "after" changes.

There are more ideas swirling around in my head for removal of the remaining grass visible in this photo. We'll see. Maybe in the spring.

Let's see... there were also transplants of Spathiphyllum floribundum , walking irises and Candy Lily, Pardancanda norrisii.

The concrete sitting bench at the left center marks the end of the trail. It was brought forward about 3 feet along with the two container plants sitting not exactly symmetrical on either side. They are each home to lemon-lime dracaena, holly ferns, caladiums, and coleus.

A view from the side angle reveals how this path now melds right into the flagstone path that makes its way winding through the center planting bed.

Divide and Conquer

I've had the opportunity to be in the garden quite a bit over the last several days. My list of things to do while it is officially still autumn has almost dwindled down to the end.

Flax lilies, Dianella tasmanica 'Variegata' are an easy plant to dig up, divide, and place in more locations. With visions of creating more borders using this easy-to-maintain plant I got started by digging out the border (shown in the above photo). Flax lily is a clumping evergreen perennial that grows in the ground or in containers in warmer climates. If you'd like to see the tiny flower they produce on wispy sprays that willow above the top of the plant you can click on the link here where I featured them in a former post.

When one plant is dug up, I always replace that spot with one of the smaller plants I've separated out from the larger one. That way I'm not losing whichever perennial I'm dividing from that location. It will then get established and grow large again for another division by the end of spring. The flax lily grows in shade or sun. You can't lose with a plant with those kind of habits. The upright blades are a nice substantial width and the variation of white and green adds interest through every season. They require very little water once established.


When digging each one up, I shake off the dirt, use my hand pruners to cut at the base of the plant making several smaller plants. You can see in the above photo how the five plants I started with became nine replaced into the same border. One of my goals was to elongate the width of this particular planting. I accomplished that by taking the edge of the border a little further over in front of the purple queen on one side and taking the other side right to the edge of the variegated liriope.

But wait there's more...

Eleven more from the divisions were planted on either side of the clay pots that make their home in this bed brightening up the empty spaces left from long gone summer caladiums.

The mexican heather I've been depending on to fill this space just haven't been performing like I'd like. I'm counting on the flax lily to perform substantially better. When the caladiums come back around by May next year they'll have some new friends bordering them to help them stand out even more than usual.

So let's do the math. That makes 15 more plants than the 5 I started with... now that's math even I can appreciate.

Two For One

My visit to the local nursery last week with a gift card burning a hole in my pocket was a productive trip. Among some other things a plant I'd never before heard of caught my attention. It is maple leaf hibiscus, Hibiscus sabdariffa . They were a little tall and lanky but full of buds. The price tag really caught my attention - buy one, get one free at $3.99 for one.

The intriguing deeply colored bloom is almost the same color as the branches and leaves. I've read that they can almost be black. Since I planted them they have new blooms each day that open in the morning and like most hibiscus they only last that day. It will be interesting to see this plant when it bushes out after I cut back in the spring. The deep burgundy is remarkably striking placed next to greenery in the garden.

Happy Thursday All, Meems.

Flax Lily

When one hears the term lily it tends to evoke images of well-known flowers of varied colors and forms. All of which lean toward oooohing and awing our botanical senses.

There are not so many lilies at Hoe and Shovel as one might see in a zone more tolerant of some of the beauties that come to mind. We do have day lilies which can be seen popping up as early as March. But I've admitted shamelessly to my inefficient ways with this popular flower.
We also grow Amazon Lilies, Eucharis grandiflora (syn. E. amazonica).

Now that name conjures up thoughts of ginormous proportions. Actually, it is a normal-sized white flower. Its plant leaves disappear altogether in the winter and reappear in spring. However, this year the Eastern Lubber grasshoppers gnawed every one of the beautifully extra-wide green leaves to the ground. They are -- the Amazon lilies, not the grasshoppers -- part of the Amaryllis family and likewise depend on their greenery to generate the bloom. So, you guessed it, I never got to see one bloom from my plants last spring. I'll be moving them next spring (when they first pop out of the ground) to a location I frequent more often. Those dastardly grasshoppers are not going to steal my blooms another year.

Then there are rain lilies which we grow here effortlessly. We lean much toward these types of plants and flowers. Effortlessly is a trait we welcome in any plant. In rain lilies it is due to their habit of just "being".


But I didn't start this post to talk about THOSE lilies.

If you take a look back at the very first photo the green and white strappy plants in the foreground are the popular landscaping plant I wanted to highlight today. Yes, that's the one -- the border plant to the side of the purple queenon the left and the chartreuse sweet potato vine on the right (I do love that combination). It's called Variegated Flax Lily, Dianella tasmanica 'Variegata'. Looking very closely, again, you might notice a few very wispy stalks of an almost weedy characteristic growing from the center of the plants (second photo).

Obviously the Variegated Flax Lily isn't a lily at all by common lily standards. Where do they come up with these names?

You wouldn't know it unless you were making an effort to notice but these delicate, tiny-- and I do mean tiny --- flowers sit atop those weedy looking stalks all spring/summer long. I'm a little late taking photographs of them so most of the stalks have faded. But here we are into autumn and they are still blooming.

Because they are in great demand in my area they cost a little more than I like to pay. I bought a few last spring and divided them for this border. The summertime has been generous to them growing them to double proportions in this short time. I'll be dividing these up in the next few weeks to distribute them to more borders. This will be the process until they are placed in all the spots in my garden I envision them to add to the scenery.

This is a low maintenance plant and an easy grower. The foliage is a little more substantial in volume than the variegated liriope that borders so many of my beds.

I guess you could say my design style leans toward completing every bed with a border. I think borders give a sense of continuity and boundary by sort of pulling everything together --- no matter what it is that grows within. The use of natural borders allows the flow of tranquility in a tropical-style garden. I do like stones and rocks as well -- only they aren't as economical in this part of the country so they aren't used as often as I'd like actually for our landscaping at Hoe & Shovel.

Do you prefer borders? What do you recommend for that finishing touch in your garden? Some gardens are more woodlands and one might not think it necessary for borders in such a garden. I must say I love every style of garden, don't you? Gardens are much like interior decorating... you can like every style but you probably shouldn't display every style in the same house.

Hope you are all enjoying your gardens this weekend whatever style they are.

Happy Saturday, Meems