I bought this Xanthorrhoea glauca back in August 2005 after dithering for about a year on whether i'd be able to keep it alive- after reading many sad posts on people seemingly doing everything right- and the plants ending up dieing gradually.

Upon getting the plant home to its temporary home in my parents garden (as i knew i was moving shortly) i unpotted it- to find woefully few roots on the plant (as expected) I think i counted 3 healthy root tips!, I potted it up into a John Innes No 2 soil mixed with perlite and gravel giving a ratio of about 75:25 soil to perlite/gravel. The plant was watered well the first year with the addition of Superthrive to the water to hopefully aid root growth.

It was too heavy to move under cover last winter so was left out with only 1 layer of fleece protecting the plant. I believe the plant was exposed to many nights of temps as low as -7- where many other plants died eg Acacia dealbata and Yucca elephantipes.

This summer (2006) i believe it has only recieved water when it rained.

I finally got round to moving the plant to my garden today (september 10th) so the plant has been in the pot just over a year. The plant stands about 7ft tall in the pot so would not have been able to be moved while in the pot- so it would have to be taken out of the pot. I was not looking forward to disturbing the roots (if there even were any!). But curious to see what growth had been made. I made sure the soil was dry before taking it out of the pot- to reduce the weight of the soil on the roots.

Very surprised and happy to see a very healthy root system once out of the pot. A big difference from what i saw when i bought the plant.

Hopefully this plant will not be being moved at all in the near future- and i will also be leaving it unprotected (apart from some fleece) this year again outside.

A beautiful plant-even if it does cover you in soot when you touch it!