Lomandra longifolia 'LM300'

Summary

UC Davis is located in Davis, California, this site has a silty clay loam soil and plants are irrigated with potable water. More information about the field sites is located in the Nuts & Bolts section.

50% Shade Results:

After previously evaluating this plant in the full-sun field, where we noted uneven performance, trials staff were interested to see if the plant would perform better in this region when grown under 50% shade. While in the full sun, plant performance ran the gamut from brilliant to dead; in the 50% shade, plant performance was uniform across the cultivar for all treatments. Breeze™ was well received by Open House participants who praised the “beautiful, green, lush,” “vibrant foliage” and how the “full form [and] arching leaves” would add texture to a landscape.  Due to these virtues, Breeze™  scored a place at every Open House on the list of plants participants were most likely to recommend to clients. As with all Lomandra cultivars we have evaluated in our trials, Breeze™ developed brown forked leaf tips, which caused some participants to adjust their ratings down. In the past, trials staff have listed this as a criticism of these Lomandra cultivars, but after further exposure to the genus, we have learned this is not a sign of stress or response to Boron in the irrigation water, but rather the nature of the plant.

There was no significant difference in relative growth rate between the treatments.  The plants on the Moderate or 50% of ETo treatment began the irrigation season in April with a significantly higher overall appearance rating than the other two treatments. This significant difference did not carry through to the individual Foliage, Flower, or Vigor categories. Although the significance of the difference disappeared in May, both the trials staff and the Open House participants consistently gave the Moderate treatment a mean OA rating that was higher than the other two treatments. Since Breeze only consistently attained a 4 on the OA rating on the Moderate irrigation level, we recommend this irrigation level for best appearance. Since there was no difference in relative growth rates between treatments, and Breeze™ did perform well at 20% of ETo, it could be expected to perform acceptably at this level as well, though a midsummer soaking might encourage long-term vigor.

Full Sun Results:

The first thing that should be said about this dwarf mat rush is that there was uneven recovery from the recommended late winter/early spring pruning which resulted in either bare centers or uneven re-growth of several plants on each treatment (Figure 3a). Only one or two plants on any treatment ever actually attained an acceptable appearance; most struggled with tip burn and pale, washed-out leaves resulting in ratings that never averaged close to good (Table 6; Figure 3b). There were no differences in growth between the treatments (Figures 15a-b). The average size of this plant at the end of the trials was 20” high x 42.5” wide (51 x 108 cm). We had previously grown this cultivar in the trials, but from much smaller stock. We concluded at the time that cultivars of this species, which is native to coastal woodlands of Australia, would perform better in afternoon or light shade. The grower, however, wanted to try larger plants in full sun. Our original conclusion remains unchanged; this plant is not recommended in full sun for hot, interior locations.

Growth and Quality Data

Click Here for Complete Data Set - 2015 (Full Sun)

Click Here for Complete Data Set - 2018 (50% Shade)