Thank you. Your video is really well shot. Did you use a GoPro or have another person shooting for you?

This is simply one of the best gardening videos I've found of any type: clear & succinct, lots of practical information, high quality filming/audio, and no wasted time. Thank you!

You should always leave the middle blade (rito) and the 2 either side of the new middle blade (awhi rito), they will ensure the fan will remain healthy. Consider the middle blade the baby and the 2 blades either side the parents they are to protect the new leaf in the middle. Any rau (leaf) on the outer of the 3 centre of the fan can be removed.

great video, exactly what i was looking for. many thanks! 1:00: sharp hand pruners and harvesting hook. wear thick gloves, long sleeve shirts and safety glasses for protection 1:45: trimming to shorten the leaves. * don't cut the tips straight across! the leaves will never regrow the beautiful shaped tips. * instead, cut close to the base, at a diagonal. the idea is to completely cut off the too-long-leaf, to encourage new leaves to fill in. 3:45: examples of incorrectly trimmed leaves 4:00: chop off the tips of the leaves that are too tall you want to remove, then follow them down to the base and cut it completely off at the base 5:00: cutting off completely dead leaves. if you can't pull them out, cut them at a diagonal as close to the base a possible 7:00: using the harvesting hook to cut off excess leaves that would otherwise make the bush more wide 8:00: finished results. no cut tips! 8:49: before/after 9:00: extra tip: variegated leaves

Thank you! Really helpful. I love my Phormium.

Thank you. That was a very informative and helpful video. You really got down in that plant and made it look so much better!

Beautiful flower👍

Excellent explanation. Thank you! Greeatings from Patagonia

The is super helpful and exactly what I was looking for. Thank you! Will be subscribing and watching your other videos.

I have just shared your video on The Garden Answers Groupies Facebook page. I hope you get more views. You videos are so good. Keep them coming PLEASE>

Great video and very useful information - thanks for posting. Before watching this, I always felt guilty trying to keep my phormium at a more manageable size than it wanted to grow, but now I don’t feel so bad. I’ve learned (the hard way) to prune down close to the base just as you show, and then wait before removing the rest of the leaf. These are really tough plants, and trying to pull off a leaf usually results in pulling up an entire section of the plant instead. Even the dead leaves don’t always come off without a fight. And just as you said, the pruners need to be really sharp. There is not a more difficult and frustrating job in gardening than trying to prune a phormium with dull blades…

Great very informative

Thank you so much for sharing this video

very helpful thankyou

Would have liked seeing how we could divide off side shoots that are healthy.

Lo 300 beautiful plant. Thank you for sharing dear friend stay connected with me

Watched this to see if I was doing it right. I’d already done it the exact same way previously with phormium and similar houseplants. So I did it right!

I’ve been trying to find out how to prune variegated phormium. I live in an apartment block of 3yrs old with probably 10 of these plants. We have a ‘gardener’ who has cut some of them off at the top! Although I am 88 I still love gardening, so having seen your video, I am going to ‘have a go’ at tidying one up your way. They have all got rather big, even though the ground is poor with a lot of chalk. So thank you for your video.

great video. i do the same way. i think people should take advice of replacing botched plant. been dealing with one for almost a year for a family member and its a lost cause. Thank you very much once again

This is very helpful. I have rows of Black Adder on both sides of my front walk. Unfortunately, there is no growth in the plants on the NW side of the walk.

Hi the traditional way of pruning is to leave the baby mum amd dad, or the new leaf coming up and the two next to it. Cut away the other leaves so your left with just three leaves per plant. Gets rid of all old foliage and left with a nice looking flax. Good video.

I've been wrestling with NZ flax last couple of days. Thanks Mary.

caught my eye for this plants purply tinge, but then it might be just illusion, or color from plant next to it. Two look lovely next to each other.

Hi Mary- I just finished my pruning and my two plants look fabulous! By the way, you mentioned something in this video about addressing the variegated phormium spears reverting to green, but I was not able to find anything on that in your library. I have a pair of potted phormium plants that had gone to a pale lime green after ~4 years, but now I'm excited to see that they are sending up variegated spears again. Could it be because I gave them some light fertilizing? Or?? Any advice here appreciated, as I'd like to encourage the trend. ;)

Thanks for posting such good advice. Do you have any videos on kangaroo paws (they seem similar to maintain like phormiums) or Japanese maples? I love my yard and gardening but my knowledge about it needs to grow.

Great video! We have not paid attention to our Phormium and it is now quite large and tall, over 6ft. It looks like we have several large clumps, too. IIt is now crowding out other plants around it. So, our question is how do we reduce it's size overall? We'd like it shorter, not sure we can effectively trim because so many fronds are so tall. We'd also like to reduce the width. Can we cut out whole clumps? What do you suggest? Thanks so much for providing great information in the video and, hopefully, answering this question.

Maori tradition is clear. leave the 3 middle leaves on each fan for plant survival. Others have pointed this out for a reason. If you are using NZ harakeke you could easily research this. There is more to a harakeke bush than than just looking beautiful

Thanks

Very good.😆 Cheers.👍 Nice.😆

Thank you. my Flex has grown so big and wide. I want to cut it small. so when you cut the whole branch off from ground level, will it grow back?

can you prune a phormium all the way down to the ground and have it re-grow new blades?

Am about to work on an overgrown phormium and would like to know if I should remove the old thin woody flower stalks or leave them in place.

Hello Mary! UK here, did you call the tool with a hook a GRAPE hook?

Hi there, I have one in my garden but they got so tall they all just bent down and look droopy😢 I cut the droopy ones the way you showed but not sure how to avoid the droopiness and them bending?

Do this advice also apply to Cordyline Red Star?

Hi, I have a few Flax plants in my front yard. I just recently moved into a new home and haven’t dealt with these type of plants before. I have noticed that the Tips are drying up and turning brown. Any advice on how to prevent this on new growths? I live in California and our summers get pretty hot here. Thanks

In New Zealand we call it by its native name “Harakeke” said like hah-rah-keh-keh. And māori is said like mou-rrrree

Not sure if you will respond as I appreciate this video is from 2 years ago (!) I love Phormiums and have a phormium sundowner but for some reason the leaves are flopping/drooping all over the place and can't maintain a upward structure, often the leaves criss-cross over each other too. Any ideas on how to fix that and why it is?

Geez, I just deadhead my phormium because it looked so sad. Will it come back? I pruned it yesterday 1/29/22 Fresno California winter.

Need more videos and information please 🐞🐦👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

Re. The bad pruning still - you wouldn’t have to plant a new phormium just cut it off at ground level in the spring/summer & within 2 months it would have grown back normally

Mine died 🙁all rotten in the middle 😢 will anything ever grow back or will that be it 🤔

Watching this after my boyfriend demolished one of our plants by cutting all of them straight across 😢

Do they really need to be pruned?

Your not actually allowed to touch Harakeke, but okay. Even if it 's on your property. So i'm told. But, who cares. I have it on my property and have used it in the past.

Why do you cut back to nearly ground level then come back in a few weeks to remove completely? You don't want any of those ugly diagonal cut tips growing so why not remove the leaf at the base in one go? Thanks for the video. Well shot for people like me who know absolutely nothing about gardening.