Cordyline Australis

There are different types - mine are red.

I don’t live in a warm place at all it’s east coast bitter winter winds but mine has never had any treatment at all I think it’s much much harder to grow in a pot though, than straight in the garden Mine flowers every year and has a perfume to it My daughter has three in her garden and hates them because they do shed their long sharp leaves regularly

We had one that grew into a small tree when planted into a garden bed but lost it in that exceedingly cold winter (was it 10 years ago?)
What we should have done was tie it up and wrap it in fleece or sacking as unfortunately snow got into to top which then froze and it died off but we rescued two of its babies which are in pots.

There are a lot of these in gardens in Ireland, but I’ve only seen them planted directly in the ground as they grow quite big. I have one which was a seedling from a garden next door, as mature ones flower and produce seeds.

In the very cold winter of 2010 some of them looked like they had died, but then regrew from the base, even though frost had killed the crown.

It really depends where you live OP. It would be unlikely to survive in my garden as it is too wet and cold in the winter. If you are in a warmer area it is a lovely specimen. In a pot I would use loam, if planting in the ground be sure to add lots of organic material.

Which type of compost would I need to plant it in?

Mine is in a large pot in a sheltered position near a wall.I used to bring it inside (shed) for the Winter, but then it got rather large so I leave it out all year.It seems fine.

If it’s going to be in a tub you will have to water it mines in the ground so the weather looks after it

I have one in the garden for the last 20 + years it totally looks after itself I ve never done anything for it it’s is now the height of my second floor and has 6 ‘branches’ if that’s what they are called

We have one in a large tub. You will need to check it regularly to make sure that it doesn't dry out, especially if the tub is terracotta. In winter, we put fleece over ours, although I'm not sure that it's really necessary. One of ours is in the south facing part of our garden, which gets really hot and the other one is in a more shady part of the garden against a fence. Both seem quite happy!