Festival™ Burgundy Cordyline

Keep soil moist and add a controlled release fertilizer to the potting mix or garden soil. Remove dead or damaged leaves as required. In cooler climates, can be enjoyed outdoors, but move indoors before the threat of frost.

This spicy new cordyline is a natural in hot color tropical gardens when played off large green foliage plants. It is also favored by smart modern garden designers who love its unique form and color for single specimens in ground or in simple geometric containers. Give this plant a rich Asian flare in decadent glazed ceramic pots and urns. An outstanding accent for patio areas and courtyards looking for something new and different. As with all cordelines they are a staple of the true Arts & Crafts era garden and California bungalow design.

This vast group is classified in the Agavaceae family with most members native to India, Australasia and Polynesia. The genus was named by French botanist, Philibert Commerson in the middle 18th century who derived it from the Greek for club, referring to the thick club-shaped root. The entire genus Cordyline is always subject to a great deal of confusion because of their similarity to both Phormium and Yucca. This is complicated by their former genus, Dracaena, Batistii, and Robinsoniana. This particular plant is a cultivar of the common New Zealand cabbage tree, C. australis, bred with C. banksii and C. pumilo. It was developed by Jark Jury and has just recently reached the world market via Anthony Tesselaar International.

In its home, the South Pacific, this plant was named cabbage tree because of its roots provided a valuable carbohydrate food source. Early missionaries actually brewed beer from it. The leaves and roots provided plentiful fibers for everything from food wrappers to thatching and sandals. The Maori and others helped to distribute various species throughout the Pacific Islands.