"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
On 07/05/2012 08:52, dave007cars wrote:
hi guys - know nothing about gardening and plants and please excuse the
spelling - planted 3 cordyline australis palms in the 3 corners of the
garden of my new build - 2 are coming on really well - growing nice and
tall probably 2 metres high - but one has stopped growing thought maybe
that i did not dig a big enough hole abd its rooted out but now whats
happened is from the centre of the palm leaves, an ugly trifid type stem
has emerged - it looks like its going to have flowes on it and its now
grown quite long and its not straight its probably a metre long - help
??? do i need to cut it out ? the rest of the palm looks like the 2 i
have - leaves are the same and the bark but its just this ugly thing is
growing from the centre - all info would be much appreciated

Many people grow Cordyline australis for years and never get it to flower
(NB the flowers are scented)! You are doing something right, but if you
don't like the flower spike you can always cut it out.

Not sure why it's stopped growing, but it always wise to leave a plant for
a season or two to see how it progresses.

--

Jeff

As Jeff says, the flowers are nice, just give it a chance, if you don't like
them then cut them off in future, it is likely to flower every year now.

They stop going straight up once they start flowering and the stem will
divide after the flower goes over and the plant will form a branched head,
so that's why this plant appears to have stopped, the other two will do the
same once they start flowering. Height overall will continue to increase but
not so fast and not straight up.


--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
Holders of National Collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cvs
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk