Plant in full sun to light shade. Can tolerate fairly dry conditions (coastal) but looks best with occasional to regular irrigation. Cold hardy to 15-20° F and possibly root hardy below these temperatures but with severe foliage damage unless protected. A showy large dark flax - one of our favorites!

Phormium 'Wildwood' circulated in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1990's as Phormium 'Purpureum', being passed from gardener to gardener by a group of devout horticultural gardeners who call themselves the "Hortisexuals" (with the mantra "No [plant is safe") and one member, Marcia Donahue, shared the plant with us. From discussions with several members of the Hortisexual group we traced the plant back to a trip the group made to the late Raymond C. Walsh's Wildwood Nursery in Upland, California in the 1980s. In honor of Ray, and to avoid the very confusing cultivar name 'Purpureum', since there were several other Phormium cultivars with this name, and with permission from our friends the Hortisexuals, we renamed this plant 'Wildwood' in 2001. By this time we had finally built up enough stock of this plant to begin selling it - it is the most asked about Phormium in our garden and we have continued to offer this beautiful large flax until the last year of the nursery. Many thanks to Marcia Donahue for giving us a start of this beautiful cultivar. As what we think was a tribute to Marcia we note that at the entrance to the Strybing Arboretum (now the San Francisco Botanic Garden) there is a beautiful planting done by Planet Horticulture with this Phormium then tagged as "Marsha's Red". Some compare this cultivar to another old favorite, 'Dark Delight', but 'Wildwood' is a bigger plant with weepier foliage that is broader and has more red in it than more blackish brown and upright growing 'Dark Delight'. 

Information displayed on this page about Phormium 'Wildwood' is based on our research conducted about this plant in our nursery library as well as from information provided by reliable online resources. We also include our own observations made about it as it has grown in the nursery gardens and other gardens visited, as well how the crops of this plant performed in the containers in our nursery field. We will also include comments received from others and welcome hearing from anyone who has information about this plant, particularly if it includes cultural information aiding others to better grow it.