Hiya, I know this is so sad but no one else seems to know so I thought I'd ask you lot. We bought this house a couple of years ago and it has some rather large plants in the garden. Problem is they are getting a bit out of control and I have no idea what they are or how best to look after them. Any ideas anyone?
The second one has white fluffy feathery kind of things at the end of the sticks in the winter but now that has fell off the sticks are just falling to bits and I don't know whether to cut them down or pull them out from the root?
Cheers, Suzy
Don't know the first one, but the second one is Pampas Grass. Lots of info on Google of course, including the suggestion that it's a secret signal for swingers...
Wow they are pretty large. Not seen the top one before but the bottom one is quite common.
In terms of maintainence, early spring is usually the best time to prune things back, and I would be tempted to cut those big things down rather than pull them up (that is if you want them to grow back).
You should be able to cut them back round the outsides if you want to just control their overgrowth. Most plants will recover the worst butchering.
/gardening geek.
Gardening geek here as well. Unfortunately, I only know vegetables.
Having said that, cutting those dead shoot things back would be a good idea. My shrub rule of thumb is that if it's dead, cut it off/back... I've never killed anything yet by cutting touch wood.
If you need advice on veg garden pests, I'm your man.
Cheers guys, I knew someone here would know 
I have no idea what those things are growing out of the first one but they are getting higher than the upstairs windows and we have 3 of those plants in the garden.
We have something like the first one (only brown, not green, and without the sticky-up bits) in our garden, and Mrs S tells me it's a Phormium. She also said that her Dad had one which he cut back a while ago, and in doing so killed it. So do your research before doing anything drastic!
It's definitely not a Phormium and the leaves look a lot softer than one of those. The leaves are exactly the same on all 3 but there is only that one that has the weird things coming out of the top.
Ohhh it does. I'll do some Googling. Cheers Stickman
So with it saying you should cut it back in spring should I leave them and just cut back the second one?
Top one is very like a plant we get here, in South Africa, mostly in the wild. More so that the a phornium looks, to me at least.
You can cut of the flowering part (the top stick-like things) safely.. I'll ask my girlfriend to have a look, she's into gardening and SA plants
So I have a New Zealand Flax and a Pampas Grass. I can impress people know with my knowledge when they ask what they are
Yep, I'd say it's a phormium - the 'weird things' coming out of the top are the flower stems - I never managed to get mine to flower in the UK, though the couple we have out here have flowered and set seed already.
With the pampas grass, once it has finished flowering and set seed (the soft frondy stems that are now just dry tubes), you can pull the sticks out, they should come free relatively easily.
Thanks all. I'll have a go at them on Thursday then
the top thing looks awfully similar to a mutant yucca plant we had in oregon - and yeah - they get crazy huge and will poke the crap outta you - but i loved it and it produced big stalks of white cream flowers each spring.
as for the pampas grass - good fucking luck. i cut ours back every year to about a foot tall and by August it's usually 10ft plus. and i think the roots must go to core of the earth.
my brother in law couldnt get rid of his so he doused it in kerosene and tossed a match - it burned/smoldered for 5 days
I have one of the first ones in my back garden, it's new zealand flax. just cut the bugger back, it will recover. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phormium
The things growing out of it are flowers, they turn into seed pods eventually. They only grow if you let the plant mature rather than hacking it back (at least in my experience)
Pampass grass is an advert for swingers. I grow loads of it.
Originally posted by: swampy I have one of the first ones in my back garden, it's new zealand flax. just cut the bugger back, it will recover.
Cheers swampy
Do I just cut the ends of the leaves where they are going yellow or as far back as I can get?
I chopped mine right back (about half way down the leaves), I'll take a photo to show you tonight if I remember.
The leaves are pretty tough and fibrous though!
Originally posted by: swampy I have one of the first ones in my back garden, it's new zealand flax. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phormium
Pampass grass is an advert for swingers.
looks up
The main reason I asked is because when I was mowing the lawn one of the leaves nearly broke the lawn mower when it got caught up so they all need something doing with them before I next mow the lawn.
Originally posted by: Stickman looks up
I have you on ignore so I couldn't read your swinger related shenanigans
Ahhh Stickman - first I said you were wrong when you were actually spot on and then Swampy ignores you
Originally posted by: Suzy The main reason I asked is because when I was mowing the lawn one of the leaves nearly broke the lawn mower when it got caught up so they all need something doing with them before I next mow the lawn.
yep, they're pretty tough plants and a pain to cut back. the leaves a bugger to get in the wheelie bin without spearing yourself!
I remember the days when all we used to talk about was sex, drugs and booze (and the odd occasion computer or design related) - now look at us boring old farts talking gardening