They don't grow very much. Plant it and be patient. As the tubestock is cheap, buy 5.

You might try giving them a little bit of blood & bone. Lomandra filiformis is quite slow growing but it does seem to respond favourably to fertiliser and grow a bit quicker than it would in the wild.

Thanks guys. Just out of curiosity, how long do they take to get to an appreciable clump? 3-4years? Perhaps you are right about planting them in the ground, as they might have been too dry in the small pot. I have a nice spot with a Doryanthes Excelcia, some lomandras and other prostrate plants. A few clumps of Xanthorrhoea would just finish it off, and give a new dimension as it grows and hopefully flowers. The spot is raised about 1.5m on one side with sandy soil, so drainage is excellent anyway.

depends on the species, but it might be 30-40 years before it makes a full hemisphere.

I just read in a bush regen book...grass trees will flower after fire, thats something to think about.

Yeah, but it's believed to be the ethylene gas that triggers the flower, not the burning itself.

I don't think you can rush a xanthorrhoea. I have grown them from seed and from seedlings. The first couple of seedlings I planted out in the open 15 years ago - one has grown in full sun and is now a sphere approaching 2 metres. the other had the misfortune to have a eucalypt come up next to it and quickly shade it out and hasn't done quite as well. The seeds I sowed about 6 years ago and raised in tubes, then in long plastic bags, and the best of them are now in 1 metre high pots (as they like to sent their roots down deep),and doing well, but still nowhere near a sphere. One that I planted out flowered at an incredibly precocious stage and went on to develope a double crown afterwards. Half a dozen others that I planted out from tube stage have done well and are slightly more advanced than the ones I have grown in pots.

I think the growing mix is important as with any plant, particularly natives. I have used a mix of roughly equal parts of washed course river sand, commercial good quality potting mix. and soil similar to that in which the parent olant was growing. A bit of nitrogenous fertiliser about once a year, otherwise I don't fertilise them. After all, they thrive in some of the most unfertile soil on the planet.
Tony

Hello, I was wondering where I could purchase some seedlings. I have been trying to germinate about 20 seeds now of about two months with no success. I have them in a seed incubator with a grow light and also a heating pad underneath.

Thanks,
Bill