Phormium ‘Merlot’ has two characteristics which are sought-after by gardeners looking to add a bit of drama to their borders. It offers bold, architectural lines with its erect, sword-shaped leaves and rich foliage colour. This handsome flax can be used in many ways in the garden and is also suitable for a large container - try growing it in a very large, glazed red container if it’s a really bold statement you’re after.
The dramatic form of ‘Merlot’ makes it intriguing to contrast with low growing flowering plants such as osteospermums or with fine foliage plants such as bronze-yellow tussock grasses. Native ground covering coprosmas or prostrate growing Fuchsia procumbens, which has scarlet berries in winter, make attractive, weed suppressing groundcovers with which to surround a flax such as ‘Merlot’. In a minimum maintenance shrub border featuring New Zealand native plants which will provide year round interest, try mingling Phormium ‘Merlot’ with the green and yellow, bushy Coprosma ‘Green and Gold’, the red flowered kaka beak, Clianthus ‘Kaka King’, and one of the very upright and slender growing Pseudopanax such as P. crassifolius or P. ferox.
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Schemes & Themes
using Liddle Wonder Plants