Grasses are very popular in the garden now because of their drought tolerance, deer resistance and low maintenance requirements. This plant, Lomandra longifolia ‘Breeze’, looks like a grass but is actually in the Lily family.

In the garden, when planted as a mass, it is a green wave of fine texture.

Here is a close-up of the flower which is seldom noticed from a distance:

It is a beautiful plant and can be treated just like a grass except for one thing: It needs even less maintenance because it doesn’t need to be cut back every year like most deciduous grasses. Lomandra is evergreen. After about 5-7 years some of the leaves die and turn brown or grey so they should be cut back then.

CUTTING BACK LOMANDRA

The gas powered hedge trimmer does a fast job but the battery powered hedge trimmer is much slower.

Maybe it will be faster if we sharpen it.

Lets try it now:

All plants are cut back and some will be removed.

There are 50 plants in the above planting and each one has two 1 GPM emitters but they probably don’t need that much; they are very tough. They are native to Australia and are used in hot weather and poor soil. The highway department in Australia plants them on the slopes along the freeways to hold the soil from erosion. The roots are very tenacious and strong.

The plants should be planted about 4′ to 4 1/2′ apart but these were planted about 3′ apart which is a little too close. There are seldom any weeds in these plantings.

I have decided to remove some plants to give them more room so after cutting them back they will be dug up and planted at another project.

The ones with the orange flags will be removed.

We found that some roots had gotten into the drip pipe through the emitters limiting the amount of water the plants got. But the plant seemed to do fine anyway.

Growth after one week.

After 3 weeks

After 6 weeks

CULTIVARS:

The first variegated cultivar of this plant is Lomandra ‘Platinum Beauty’. It gets to about the same size as ‘Breeze’ – 4-5′. It is a beautiful white glistening accent when adjacent to other green plants.

This is Lomandra ‘Arctic Frost’ which is very similar to L. ‘Platinum Beauty’ but smaller and not as vigorous.

A slightly smaller and more yellow green plant is Lomandra ‘Lime Tuff’

Lomandra longifolia ‘Lime Mist’ is similar in color to ‘Lime Tuff’ but finer texture.

This is Lomandra ‘Shorty’ which gets about 12″ tall.

Lomandra longifolia ‘Miner’s Gold’ is a small plant with a chartreuse green color.

Lomandra longifolia ‘Nyalla’

Lomandra fluviatalis ‘Shara’ is more blue-grey in color.

Lomandra filiformis ‘Savannah Blue’ is more blue in color.

Lomandra confertifolia ‘Seascape’ is the bluest cultivar.

Lomandra ‘Katrinus Deluxe’ is a little coarser in texture and prefers more shade than Lomandra ‘Breeze’