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Products > Lomandra Platinum Beauty ™ ['Roma 13'] PP25,962
 
Lomandra Platinum Beauty ™ ['Roma 13'] PP25,962 - Variegated Dwarf Mat Rush
   
Image of Lomandra Platinum Beauty	™ ['Roma 13'] PP25,962
[2nd Image]
Habit and Cultural Information
Category: Grass-like
Family: Asparagaceae (~Liliaceae)
Origin: Australia (Australasia)
Evergreen: Yes
Variegated Foliage: Yes
Flower Color: Yellow
Bloomtime: Summer
Fragrant Flowers: Yes
Synonyms: [L. White Sands]
Parentage: (Lomandra longifolia hybrid)
Height: 2-3 feet
Width: 2-3 feet
Exposure: Sun or Shade
Seaside: Yes
Summer Dry: Yes
Deer Tolerant: Yes
Irrigation (H2O Info): Low Water Needs
Winter Hardiness: 15-20° F
Lomandra longifolia Platinum Beauty™ ['Roma13'] PP25,962 (Variegated Dwarf Mat Rush) - A beautiful evergreen grass-like perennial to 3 feet tall with 2 foot long very narrow green leaves that have a white central stripe and white margins. The leaves are erect in the center of the plant and later arch gracefully back towards the ground. As with other Lomandra, the leaf tips are curiously cut as though with pinking shears at the tips but, because the leaves are so narrow and variegated, this aspect, which some see as a detriment, is hardly noticeable. This cultivar grows much smaller than most Lomandra longifolia species, only reaching to 28 to 36 inches tall and spreading to about the same width. In spring appear the short spikes of fragrant yellow flowers, subtended by small soft yellow spines, that rise only about halfway up to the height of the foliage – the flowers of this cultivar are all males and no fruit is produced.

Plant in full sun to moderate shade in a well-drained soil. It is drought tolerant once established but can also tolerate regular irrigation so can be used both in the dry and moderately well irrigated garden, but not at its best in heavy soils that remain moist. Hardy to just below 20° F. It is tolerant of a very wide range of conditions and requires little to no maintenance once established and is an attractive and useful plant for a specimen planting in the ground or in containers, mixed in the border planting, lining a walkway or for mass planted large scale groundcover, working well on slopes, near coastal conditions or in other difficult situations in both sun or shade, so long as the soil has decent drainage. We have grown this plant in our nursery since its introduction it appears as yet to have no pest problems and so far has been resistant to predation by deer and rabbits.

The name Lomandra comes from the Greek words 'loma' meaning "margin" and 'andros' meaning "male" and is in reference to a circular margin on the anthers. The specific epithet 'longifolia' means "long leaves". The genus Lomandra has long been placed in the past with the Australian Grass Trees in the Xanthorrhoaceae or related Dasypogonaceae and then more recently in its own family, the Lomandraceae, or combined with the Cordyline into the Laxmanniaceae. Current treatment is to put it in the subfamily Lomandroideae in the Asparagaceae.

This cultivar reportedly originated from seed collected from an open pollination group of unnamed Lomandra cultivars growing at Robert Harrison's Greenhills Propagation Nursery in Tynong, Victoria, Australia where it was named 'Roma 13' as a selected single plant within the resulting seedlings in 2008. The portion of the cultivar name "Roma" comes from a combination using the first two letters of Robert Harrison's first name combined with the first letters of Malcolm Woolmore's name. Malcolm was the managing director of Kiwi Flora and Lyndale Nurseries in New Zealand and was responsible for introducing this plant to US markets. In May 2013 this plant was granted the protection of Plant Breeder Rights in Australia and received US Plant patent PP25,962 in September 2015. Its marketing name worldwide is White Sands but made its debut in the US in 2016 within the Sunset Western Garden Collection program under the marketing name Platinum Beauty but continues to be sold in Australia and Europe as White Sands.

San Marcos Growers first introduced Lomandra longifolia to the California nursery trade in 1990 (See our Lomandra History Page) and since then have grown many different cultivars of Lomandra. We first began growing Platinum Beauty in 2016 and have it planted in our nursery gardens and in decorative pots around our office. We have found it to be a very strong growing cultivar with a variegation that has remained very stable, with only a very few plants sporting fans that are pure green or all white. We consider this plant to be most similar in form to the non-variegated Lomandra longifolia 'Nyalla'. We also grow another fairly similar Lomandra Lomandra longifolia 'Arctic Frost' that is a little shorter with a more upright habit and also two very nice variegated Lomandra hystrix cultivars that have wider leaves, Lomandra hystrix 'Sunsprite' and Lomandra hystrix 'Lucky Stripe'

The information about Lomandra Platinum Beauty ™ ['Roma 13'] PP25,962 displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant.

 
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