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Astelia chathamica (Silver Spear) - An evergreen perennial with bold upright and then recurving leaves which are a pale green above and silvery-white below and are held in a large upright rosette - a large clump - growing to about 4 feet tall and as wide. Plant in sun or part shade in rich well-drained soil with moderate water. Has a low water requirement once established. Rarely flowers and the male and female flowers are on separate plants. Neither are showy and are usually down in the foliage however the orange-red fruit of female plants are noted as attractive - our large plants' inflorescences were too deep in the foliage for the fruit to be noticed.
Plant in full coastal sun to morning sun or bright shade inland and water occasionally. It is cold hardy to 20-25 degrees F. It is best to trim off old foliage, which withers and dries, to keep plant looking tidy. Feed with a long term, slow releases fertilizer in spring.
Astelia chathamica comes from the Chatham Islands, located over 400 nautical miles east of the North and South Island of New Zealand. It is likened to a silver flax and in fact has the common name Maori Flax in its native habitat on the Chatham Islands where it is considered an endangered plant. There are 25 species of Astelia, 13 of which are endemic to New Zealand. The genus name comes from combining the Greek words 'a' meaning "without" and 'stele' meaning a "trunk" or "pillar" in reference to these plants not forming a stem or trunk. They have long been considered part of the Liliaceae family but most recent treatment puts them in the Asteliaceae family in the Asparagales order with the relatively unknown genera Collospermum, Milligania and Neoastelia. We started growing this plant in 1987 from plants imported from Duncan & Davies Nursery in New Zealand and first listed it in our 1988 catalog. We believe this was the first time this plant was commercially grown in California. While we still have one plant of this species in a large pot in our nursery garden near our office, unfortunately we have not been able to acquire good seed or laboratory produced plants since 2015 and so replaced it with Astelia 'Silver Shadow', a very attractive smaller plant with similar silver foliage that is a hybrid between Astelia chathamica and Astelia nervosa and we also grow Astelia banksii, which we introduced into the California nursery trade in 1999.
This information about Astelia chathamica displayed is based on research conducted in our horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also will relate observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments that we receive from others and we welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share any cultural information that would aid others in growing it.
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