Cabbage Tree Cordyline australis Red Star

Red Star begins as a spiky rosette of narrow bronze red leaves and slowly lifts itself onto a thickening woody trunk, branching into several heads as it ages. Unlike the tropical ti plants it sits beside on the bench, this is a New Zealand species from cool open country, and it takes frost, coastal wind and cold winters without flinching, provided the ground it is standing in drains. It is used as a vertical accent in exposed coastal gardens, in cold southern districts and in large pots either side of an entry.

Drainage decides whether it lives

Hardiness is not the issue with this plant. It grows in Hobart, Melbourne, Adelaide, the tablelands and right on a salt exposed foreshore, and it holds its colour through conditions that flatten the coloured cordylines. Give it full sun for the strongest bronze red, since leaf colour washes towards green in shade and the rosette opens out and loses its shape. Ordinary soil suits it and rich soil is not wanted. In a garden bed set it high, on a mound or a raised area, and break up any clay pan underneath before planting. The failure mode is wet airless soil at the roots. It shows as sudden collapse, a plant that looks fine for months and then goes soft at the base and topples inside a week, and it gets blamed on disease when the cause is drainage. Potted plants die the same way from a saucer left standing full of water. Water deeply when the soil is dry and then leave it alone, and never plant it into a low spot that collects runoff from a downpipe or a driveway.

Red Star or the tropical ti plants

The plant it gets shelved next to is Cordyline fruticosa Rubra, which has broad soft burgundy leaves, wants humidity and warmth, and has no frost tolerance at all. If your garden gets frost, Red Star is the one that survives outdoors and Rubra is the one that needs a pot and a roof over winter. For shaded courtyards and under decks, where Red Star loses colour and stretches towards the light, Cordyline stricta is the better fit, with slim canes and matt green leaves that hold form in low light. Choose Red Star for open sun, wind, cold, and a trunk in time.

Stripping the skirt and feeding

There is no conventional pruning. Old leaves die and hang on in a skirt rather than dropping cleanly, which shelters snails and looks scruffy, so pull them off by hand once or twice a year, ideally in late winter and again after summer. Cutting the trunk back in spring forces multiple heads if you want a branched shape sooner, and the cut stem callouses over quickly in warm weather. Feed sparingly with a slow release fertiliser in early spring, since rich feeding produces soft green growth and weakens the colour. Repot potted specimens every few years into a coarse free draining mix. More easy plants in low maintenance.

Choosing a size

This plant is available in 6 sizes, from 130mm up to 300mm, priced from $16.95 to $88.95 per plant. The size shown is the pot the plant arrives in, which is the rootball, not the height of the plant. These are younger plants, priced for planting in quantity, and they establish quickly once in the ground. Not sure which to choose? Read our guide to low water gardens.