During the midst of the worst heat wave in years, a package arrived on our doorstep. Live plants. Fortunately, our doorstep is in the shade, so the “Live Plants” tag was still accurate.
The plants came from Tuffy in Temecula, a supplier of plants to wholesale nurseries – our closest grower is supposedly Devil Mountain Growers, near Galt.
Inside the box were some tagged plants, looking a bit thirsty from the heat but otherwise healthy. Accompanying them was some literature describing cultivation, mature size and other features, along with information on the grower. There was also a leaflet talking about the pots – more like liners – that allow the plants to establish quickly, with a lower cost per plant than one gallon pots.
A quick rootball soaking revived them enough to hold for planting once the heat wave passed – 112° F is not a good temperature for planting!
Our new varieties of plants, two varieties of Dianella and two of Lomandra, with three plants of each variety now waited to be planted and tested in the garden. We already had two of the four varieties: Dianella ‘Cassablue’ and Lomandra ‘Breeze’, and they were doing well in difficult conditions. The new plants added a larger, fragrant Lomandra: ‘Katie Belles’, plus a new (for us) variety of Dianella, ‘Tasred’.
Dianella ‘Tasred’ is supposed to grow well in sun or shade. In sun, it should be lime green. In shade, medium green with a looser, arching habit. In cooler weather the plants, whether in sun or shade, are supposed to blush red. We placed two in the open shade of a river birch, one in a sunnier area. None of these areas gets a lot of water.
The plant in the sunnier location is showing a bit of leaf scorch, only normal considering it went from a closed box to a shaded area for re-hydration to finally a site in the garden. At this point, it’s only been in the ground about a week. The plants in the shade are already showing new growth, without any transplant shock.
Our other new trial, Lomandra ‘Katie Belles’, is supposed to grow much larger than Lomandra ‘Breeze’, reaching about 5′ x 5′. That’s the size of a small New Zealand flax! This plant, however, is supposed to have fragrant flowers, unlike the flax. It’s another sun or shade tolerant species, so we installed our three plants in sun, shade, and filtered shade. We’ll see where they’re happiest.
The new Dianella ‘Cassablue’ plants will let us test this variety in a part of the garden that gets a bit more water than our established plants. The older plants get almost none, and probably would prefer a bit wetter environment.
This is one of our established plants, where it’s been growing for about three years under tough conditions.
Lomandra ‘Breeze’ is the most grass-like of the trial plants, and one that we were already testing. It’s not a grass, but works just like a compact, non-spreading, non-invasive one in landscape settings. The new plants are scattered around the garden, generally where they’ll get a bit more water than our older plants. Hopefully they’ll be a bit more lush, although the older plants have an acceptable appearance.
This is one of our established plants, in dry soil and full sun. It pretty much looks like this all year round, with funny Carex-like flowers held low where they’re not especially obvious.