Phormium 'Pink Stripe' (v)

Common name: Pink Stripe New Zealand Flax

Description: Phormium 'Pink Stripe' is a beautifully decorative and eye-catching variegated New Zealand Flax that brings a distinctive and unusually soft warmth to the architectural planting palette, combining the bold, upright, sword-like habit for which phormiums are so valued with a foliage colouring of real originality and charm. The long, arching, strap-like leaves are a rich bronze-green, each one striped and margined with a striking combination of salmon-pink to rose-pink and creamy-ivory variegation that runs in elegant bands along the length of the leaf, creating an overall effect that is simultaneously bold and surprisingly delicate — a combination that associates particularly well with warm-toned planting schemes featuring oranges, reds, coppers, and purples, as well as providing an unexpected and pleasing contrast with silver and grey foliage plants. The colouring is at its most vivid and saturated in good light, and the fan-shaped, upright clumps develop over time into handsome and substantial specimens of considerable architectural presence and year-round interest. 'Pink Stripe' is a versatile and rewarding plant that performs equally well as a bold focal point in a mixed border, as a container specimen for a sunny terrace or courtyard, or as part of a coastal or Mediterranean-inspired planting scheme, where its tolerance of salt-laden winds and exposed conditions makes it a particularly practical and reliable choice.

Other benefits: highly distinctive and unusually coloured variegated foliage combining bronze-green with salmon-pink and creamy-ivory striping; bold architectural form with year-round evergreen presence; excellent coastal and exposed site tolerance; versatile as a border plant or container specimen; effective in warm-toned and Mediterranean-style planting schemes

Wildlife attraction: bees and nectar-feeding insects when in flower

Height & spread (approx.) at 10 years: 1.2m x 1m

Position: full sun preferred for best foliage colour and vigour; tolerates partial shade though variegation and overall colouring are most vivid in a sunny, open position; excellent in coastal and exposed gardens

Soil pH: adaptable; performs well in neutral to slightly acid soils; pH 6.0–7.0; reasonable drainage is important, particularly in winter

Moisture: moderate watering when establishing; tolerates drought reasonably well once established; prefers well-drained soil; avoid prolonged waterlogging in winter which represents the greatest risk to this plant in UK conditions

Winter hardiness: hardy to approximately -8°C to -10°C in well-drained conditions; may sustain some foliage damage in the hardest winters but will often regenerate from the base; benefits from a dry mulch over the crown in colder inland regions; container-grown plants should be moved under cover during prolonged hard frosts