New Zealand Flax

A hard morning in the garden cleaning out flower beds, cutting back shrubs, the eternal fight against bramble, buttercup and rambling rose.

I dug up and split the flax plants I planted three years ago. The colour of the  leaf stalks and roots are a wonderful array of oranges, purples and greens.

Until I went to New Zealand I didn't realise NZ flax was used to make a variety of coverings and ropes.

Flax/harakeke was an amazingly versatile plant in the right hands. Maori made warm clothing, fishing line and rope from the processed flax - the leaves were scraped with a mussel shell.
 
The raw leaves were used to make baskets and floor mats. The gum healed wounds and the boiled roots made a disinfectant.

There were two flax booms in New Zealand, both associated with shortages of manila fibre. The first was in the 1860s and the second in the 1880-90s. The latter one was, 'due a shortage of manila fibre [in 1888 that] coincided with a demand for binder twine in the United States of America'.

For a bit more on the flax industries that died out long ago see here on my website.

The afternoon went from bad to farce. I took The Principal to Gatwick to catch a plane to Edingburgh - her dad is having an op and mother is housebound. All went swimmingly even though we saw lorries queued for miles to get into Dover port.

After a good drop off my phone went. The operation was cancelled! Again! I returned to Gatwick after a longish loop up the M23. Then we proceeded homeward avoiding Dover and the lorries that were now stretched back over 12 miles. Even then we were held up by a broken down lorry.  Four hours later ....

It could have been worse.