Kittyluvr400
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Posts: 73
Joined: Thu May 19, 2016 7:21 pm
Location: South central Long Island, NY. Zone 7

Zone 7 grasses. Uh oh!

While doing research on one plant, I came across some disappointing information about another. I have a new 400 sq ft flowerbed and it is gorgeous. I loved mixing grasses into it and they are doing really well...especially in the sunny spots. Now I find out that my purple fountain grass is an annual in my zone 7. Ok, I love it and will plant it each year. Upon this info, I started looking up my other grasses and I am finding several, if not all my grasses are not hardy in zone 7.

I have dwarf fountain grass (Hemeln, pink plumes), miscanthus (nice and tall) and Hakone Aureola (which is only doing well in the shade), I think one is called carex spectrum (?), as well as the purple fountain grass. I think I am finding out they are not perrenials in my area. Say it isn't so!

Are all my grasses seriously annuals?!
If so, guess I will rethink some areas of the garden for next spring. I don't mind some as annuals, but am I losing all of them? And here I thought I researched well. I am new to gardening and obviously have much more to learn. I am an idiot. Sigh.

Thanks for any feedback on this. I am bummed. But I will enjoy them for now.

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KeyWee
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Posts: 231
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2008 2:50 pm
Location: West Kentucky

I am also a Z7, although another state, and with the exception of (maybe) the purple grass (which is usually grown in pots around here) you should be okay. I can't imagine ANY miscanthus that wouldn't be fine in Z7. Grasses are very hard to kill (or move) so I would treat them all as you normally would ~ cut back in spring and wait.

Kittyluvr400
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Posts: 73
Joined: Thu May 19, 2016 7:21 pm
Location: South central Long Island, NY. Zone 7

Thank you! After my post I looked further into it, and I did find my other grasses should be fine. I have no problem buying the purple fountain grass as an annual well worth the price. Now that I know it's an annual I can pick new places for it each yr. I have the 2 miscanthus near 2 purples and they really are getting in each other way, very sloppy. Now I can enjoy the miscanthus a bit better next yr.

LIcenter
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Joined: Sun Dec 21, 2014 9:23 am
Location: Long Island, NY Zone 7a/6b-ish

Given your location, I am just north of you and have seen many purple fountain grass in our location doing just fine year round. The rest of your selections will also be no problem for our area. Your biggest problem might be if you want to get rid of them at a later date. :-)

Kittyluvr400
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Posts: 73
Joined: Thu May 19, 2016 7:21 pm
Location: South central Long Island, NY. Zone 7

LIcenter wrote:Given your location, I am just north of you and have seen many purple fountain grass in our location doing just fine year round. The rest of your selections will also be no problem for our area. Your biggest problem might be if you want to get rid of them at a later date. :-)
Well then, I will keep them in the ground til spring and see what happens.

So....why would they be trouble getting rid of, should I want to, at a later date? Difficult to get rid of? Please, do tell.

Thanks
Rose

LIcenter
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Posts: 269
Joined: Sun Dec 21, 2014 9:23 am
Location: Long Island, NY Zone 7a/6b-ish

Kittyluvr400 wrote:
LIcenter wrote:Given your location, I am just north of you and have seen many purple fountain grass in our location doing just fine year round. The rest of your selections will also be no problem for our area. Your biggest problem might be if you want to get rid of them at a later date. :-)
Well then, I will keep them in the ground til spring and see what happens.

So....why would they be trouble getting rid of, should I want to, at a later date? Difficult to get rid of? Please, do tell.

Thanks
Rose
Sorry Rose, my last sentence was more snark than anything serious. As long as you pick ornamental grasses that are of the 'clump' variety it's all good. I've had a few years back that were not, and it took what seemed like a lifetime to rid the garden of them.

Kittyluvr400
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Posts: 73
Joined: Thu May 19, 2016 7:21 pm
Location: South central Long Island, NY. Zone 7

I cut those 4 purple fountain grasses down over the weekend. As beautiful as they are, by end of August they were leaning, and during rain they just laid down.

As an annual....I will never get them again. I cut them down and then removed the root balls. Took me a 1/2 hour of seriously hard work to get just one out of the ground. Not worth it. I likely made it harder by watering them everyday. They stood about 7 feet high.

Licenter....you made a comment waaaay back telling me that trying to get rid of them will be a battle. I don't think you meant because of how hard they would be to remove later on, but I actually thought of you while I worked my butt off trying to dig them up. LOL

Yes, they are nice....but to have to remove them every year, I don't recommend them.

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KeyWee
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Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2008 2:50 pm
Location: West Kentucky

Yes, Llcenter is right about moving (or trying to get rid of) grasses. People will say "can I get a little piece of that?" and I say "yeah, sure ~ if you dig it yourself". I have broken a wooden shovel handle trying to get out pieces of zebra grass. Make sure you plant it where you want it to stay.
Since it was mentioned that the purple grass MAY be a little bit hardy in your area, you could have just cut it back and left it over the winter to see what happens, but since you already dug it, I would just move on :lol:

Kittyluvr400
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Posts: 73
Joined: Thu May 19, 2016 7:21 pm
Location: South central Long Island, NY. Zone 7

I was forced to cut two purple grasses in late November, due to them leaning into the driveway, plus they over grew their spots. At that time I just cut them down, with the intent to remove the root balls later. They were growing back. As pretty as they were, as well as the neighbors enjoying their pretty sight, I started getting tired of their constant sagging/leaning. After a rainfall they just laid in the ground. The garden looked so much better with them gone.

With Autumn now here, I want to put a small display with hay, pumpkins and mums. My mom wanted the ole' corn stalk on the mailbox post. When I saw the corn stalks they reminded me of a dead grass and I refuse to put that in my garden. LOL.

KeeWee....you worry me. I have a zebra grass coming any day now in the mail. I have no intention of ever moving it....but you never know....sigh, thanks for the warning. I also need to transplant a dwarf fountain. I'm afraid of it now, lol, but it must be done. Anything to say about Pink Muhly? I have two coming. Next spring will be my second year with this garden and I am trying to fix all the things I did wrong this year. NO DEADHEADING! If it needs to be deadheaded, it will not be allowed in. Except for marigolds and begonias, which are easy, for potted color. I just spray the begonias with the jet stream from the hose and that removes any petals that are ready to fall off.

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KeyWee
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Posts: 231
Joined: Fri Dec 26, 2008 2:50 pm
Location: West Kentucky

If you are only in your second year with this garden, you are doing fine! I wouldn't even have a garden if it weren't for all the mistakes I have made, and I have been here 12 years!!
Just make sure you put any and ALL grasses where you want them to stay as they are next to impossible to remove. There are several kinds of zebra grass ~ I have the dwarf that only gets about 3' tall and I really like that one. The standard zebra gets about 6' tall and yes, it tends to lay over after heavy rain or wind. I just lop it off if it gets messy ~ it's not like you're going to kill it :roll:

Kittyluvr400
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Posts: 73
Joined: Thu May 19, 2016 7:21 pm
Location: South central Long Island, NY. Zone 7

KeeWee...I'm glad to hear you have a dwarf zebra. I bought the larger one for an accent. I still needed something that can handle the full sun by the mailbox on the curb. I found a dwarf zebra and I am glad you mentioned it really did go about 3 ft high. Perfect! Two other accents, mostly for color are two pink Muhly. Trying to keep flowering color out, due to the hard work of deadheading. Putting in perennial color with the color coming from their foliage. My favorite grass ended up being the carex silver spectrum. What a gorgeous little grass. It spread so beautifully by growing babies around the edge underside...so it got larger in an almost shaggy kind of way. Perfect for my shady yard in the spring. Other than the carex and some potted annuals, I have already repaired this years bad ideas. It will be so interesting next spring to see all the newbies come up. Not sure what to expect out of them, other than what I THINK will become of them. I did my shopping online this fall, plants I wouldn't find in my area. It was exciting getting them in the mail. All online sites delivered beautiful plants, well protected. I've got 47 bulbs planted in baskets and hope they survive the winter in the shed. Plus I cannot believe the prices of garden ornaments! I remember seeing them in stores for $10-15.00. Now...nothing under $30. So I placed an order for them through the Collections catalog. Roughly $15-20 each.

Have a good winter. Ugh.



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