Lomatia – an astounding flower shrub family

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Delicately scented summer flowers cover these evergreen shrubs, members of the Proteaceae family, and the sunnier the spot, the heavier the display. Lomatia stay small enough for a large pot beside the deck, shrug off drought once established, and ask only one thing in return: acidic, free-draining soil.

A summary of Lomatia key facts

Care is often very easy, and each species of Lomatia has its perks.

How to plant Lomatia

All lomatia shrubs are similar in size and needs.

Outdoor planting of a Lomatia tree

Lomatia is a shrub that is easy to care for, once it is well established. Soil quality and location are important considerations.

• Plant in spring and, if not, second best is fall.
• Lomatia shrubs all love acidic soil and even sandy soil.
• Choose a mostly sunny emplacement. The sunnier, the bloomier!

Growing Lomatia in a pot

These shrubs are particularly well suited to growing in containers.

• To avoid needless repotting, transfer your purchased specimen to a rather large pot.
• Prepare a mix of heath soil and planting soil mix. Add up to a fourth of used coffee grinds if available.
• The pot must have a hole at the bottom to drain well. When you pour water, it should drain nearly immediately, the sign of a very well-draining mix.
• Add pebbles or expanded clay balls if necessary.

Pruning and caring for Lomatia

All of the Lomatia species will stay rather small. Rarely is pruning needed. In the best of environments, the shrub will top off at around two yards or meters tall.

After the blooming, removing wilted flowers will help the tree focus on branching and rooting.

Remove dead wood regularly and thin out branches to let light penetrate to the center.

• This will result in your Lomatia keeping a nice, tight shape.

Check our video with expert tips (activate translation subtitles):

Feed sparingly and avoid phosphorus-rich fertilisers, which Proteaceae such as Lomatia tolerate poorly.

Mulch the base with pine bark or pine needles and never hoe there, since the shrub’s feeding roots run close to the surface.

Watering Lomatia

Apart from the first year, when freshly planted, you won’t need to water a lomatia.

This plant family is among the nicest drought-resistant plants.

Use rainwater whenever you can, since lime in tap water raises soil pH and this acid-loving shrub resents it.

Potted lomatia need watering right through the warm months, because a container dries out far faster than open ground, though plants set in the ground may also need occasional summer water.

Let the surface of the mix dry before watering again, and tip out any water standing in the saucer.

Diseases often found on a Lomatia

Not many diseases have followed Lomatia shrubs out of their native ranges.

• If the leaves start turning black, it’s often linked to excess watering. Reduce watering and check that the soil drains well enough.

Never feed a lomatia with phosphorus-rich fertiliser or manure.

If a shrub is lost to root rot, avoid replanting another Proteaceae in the same spot, as the pathogen persists in the soil.

Learn more about Lomatia

Lomatia is a family of at least twelve species.

• The one most often sold in garden stores is Lomatia tinctoria, the guitar plant.

Other species are also very beautiful or useful:

• Lomatia hirsuta –native to Chile and the South American coast. Wood is used for sculpting and woodworking.
• Lomatia tasmanica – only found in its native range, western Tasmania, it is critically endangered and not for sale.
• Lomatia arborescens – the tallest of the lomatia species. Reaches 30 feet (10 meters). “Arborescens” means “tree-like”.
• Lomatia myricoides – also called river lomatia. Light wood that is easy to work into sculptures.
• Lomatia ferruginea – beautiful wood texture and grain, often used as an ornamental tree in Chile.