Martin Wainwright, Northern editor of the Guardian, has found a new use for the cordylines which have succumbed to the bad winter:

"I mentioned yesterday that pictures of my debut thatching of a Wendy house in Bingley with leaves from our stricken Cordyline australis would be available soon, and here is one. This may become a secondary job in these straitened times. My wife and I went to a birthday party in Roundhay yesterday and over the pink buns secured a probable commission for a second thatch on a neat little tree house with three occasional residents. We'll be gathering scattered dagger-leaves this evening."