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Cabbage trees or Cordylines
Always imposing in the landscape are our native cabbage trees with their clumps of leaves atop stout trunks but they are particulary lovely at the moment sporting their large heads of very fragrant flowers. These heads of flowers which sprout from the growing stems are are made up of hundreds of flowers massed together in panicles. The flower colour is mostly creamy white but occasional you see pinky forms.
Cordyline australis or Ti kouka is one of the tallest lilies in the word attaining around 9 metres in height. The common name Cabbage tree was given to it by the early settlers who used to boil and eat the young shoots.
Planted as a single trunked specimen the Cabbage tree eventually sends out branches to become a multi branched tree. It has a huge capacity to regenerate itself and even when cut to the ground will send up new shoots to grow into a new tree. The bare trunk can be sawn off at any height and within a few months sprouts will grow from the bare trunk to refurnish the cabbage tree. Inded this is a good way to bring down the height of the tree without the need to remove it.
Cabbage trees are pretty hardy and enduring. Ideally they like moisture and you will find them growing naturally near water, in swamps or low lying areas. But they are tolerant of dry coastal exposure once they have been established. They look good in all landscapes, either planted singly or as a group. Somehow they don’t look out of place anywhere, be it in the cottage garden or in the modern garden of very little.
Cordyline australis has two excellent variants .A purple leafed variety known as C. australis purpurea which grows round 5ms and the variegated form Cordyline Albertii .This has green leaves broadly banded creamy yellow and is a slower and much smaller growing variety. Cordyline albertii has always been hugely expensive but this because it is slow and difficult to propagate while the other two are produced from seed. All make great container plants, particulary Albertii because being slower growing one can keep it in a container for longer. Also the leaf colouring is striking.
Cabbage trees have one major affliction, a native moth .Well the grubs of a native moth who live between the leaf blades. They come out at night and devour the leaves voraciously. Rarely will they kill a cabbage tree but young plants do look messy. This is mainly a warm weather pest and fairly easily controlled. On trees you can reach just simply press the leaves together to squash the caterpillars. Neem oil can be sprayed onto the leaves and into the heart of the Cabbage trees. Alternatively A systemic insecticide or Neem oil can be painted neat around the base of the trunk. I have even heard that Neem pellets scattered around the root area of the Cabbage tree will keep this pest under control.
Cabbage trees drop their older leaves through late spring, summer and autumn so it is quite normal to see the lower leaves yellowing through this period. The leaves are a nuisance as they don’t break down readily. The fibre is stronger and more durable than that of Flax and was once woven and made into baskets and sandals. Little wonder then when picked up by a lawn mower the cabbage tree leaf blade always wins. Where possible try and position Cabbage trees in a garden situation so their leaves can fall into the garden . Collect the fallen leaves to use as kindling, they are superb.
 Close up of flowers
 Cordyline Purple Tower
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