New Zealand Flax

My Flax was planted some 14 years ago and has developed into an excellent specimen.
The only problem being that it has never flowered or produced the normal seed pod!

Any ideas please?

 

They seem to flower more freely when they're stressed, i.e. hot, dry conditions on light soil.

 

I lost two lovely container NZ flax in the very cold winters 5 years ago . They put out the seed head and flowered . I have a new one Phormium Jester , lovely but can't recall it flowering .

@noisette47 , with my gardening skills , I stress all my plants

 

I don't believe that for a minute, @HarryS You're just being modest.....

 

Um.....don't know about the soil, but hot and dry might be difficult ...Back to the tomato food then!

 

There's a Yucca that lives on top of the pill box here in 1 inch of windblown soil, never gets watered unless it rains, flowers every year out of sheer terror

 

I tend to guess the lack of flowering is most likely to be down to variety.
I'm guessing if you were to grow the bog standard P. tenax the chances are it would flower most years, but some of the smaller varieties are actually grown for form and leaf colour so flowering can often be considered un-beneficial to the overall effect.

Having said that, I'm sure heat in summer/full sun would be a governing factor in producing flowers along with the general well being of the plant.

 

Here's the yucca b.t.w.

 

For what it's worth, my experiences of P. tenax.......Northants, clay soil, well-watered garden, never flowered. 8 miles down the road, division of same plant on Kettering loam, dry garden rarely watered, flowered every year. Over here, heavy soil but dries out horribly from June onwards, P. tenax and P. Yellow Wave flower every year. The P. cookianum hybrids don't
Now if you tried to grow a Yucca, Zigs, bet it'd peg it!

 

Didn't try to grow this one, think it must have been dropped by a Swallow

 

Yuccas cannot reproduce by seed in the UK, we dont have the right moths
Someone must have planted it.

 

A moth can't carry a 2lb Yucca

 

Then you must have big moths in Somerset.