Thank you much everyone for this very interesting, educational, humorous thread!!! I came searching, as all I've had to deal with all my years, were tools of mowing engagements! Having grown up in as asphalt jungle (not the movie!) I fell in love with the smell of fresh cut grass! Am 4'10" (now I was told grew older to less1" ~ just my luck!) & for years before the advent of electric mowers I used to hop on top of the darned machine just to be able to start it ~ nearly lost my fingers reaching for clogged grass etc etc ~ didn't want to start machine over & over! So now you know ... I am that *priceless* image Carl18 vividly etched in your mind ~ *73y/o lady wrestling w/ Sawz-All* (by the way I think I'd love it!) Oh & I can always count on ken for injecting a bit to laugh! All I know about Ornamental Grass is admire them on people's landscape & am now for the first time brain-storming about what to do w/ a NE corner after cutting down a very old limb-dropping/breaking Crabapple tree where all the large Hostas now burning! No, not the regular Pampas ~ I know enough to avoid! I couldn't find the young neighbor to ask, what he planted that looks neat, upright, columnar, tallish & offers privacy (for me a blind from the dogs behind)! I googled & marked *Morn' Light, K Foerster, Heavy Metal, Dallas Blue* ~ any pros & cons would be appreciated! TIA!

Back in 1992 while volunteering for Saratoga Hort foundation,I bought a Chitalpa Pink Dawn in a 5 gallon size, and planted it here in Calistoga. After planting I cut about 3 feet of the leader out to allow it to grow as a multi-trunk. The removed leader I planted in the patio area to grow as a standard at the start of the stairway to the upper parking area. The multi trunk version I removed after a few years as it sprawled over two large an area. The patio tree I cut at about 5 feet to form two scaffolds high enough to walk under. Because of the shade in the picture it is not easy to see the scaffolds. At the top you can see the one year growth often exceeds 3 feet and requires fairly hard pruning yearly. The white flowers at the right are a star Jasmine on a two story brick wall. Al

Monkey grass (Liriope) DOES flower. Since it is not a grass at all but an iris relative, it's ability to flower (and in a variety of colors) is arguably better than that of any equivalently sized ornamental grass whose flowers are insignificant but often will produce showy seedheads. And it is tough to find an evergreen OG equivalent that will remain at a similar compact size as liriope for use an edging or border plant. But as Donn notes, if you don't need to restrict it to this purpose and there is no limit on height, then your options are wide open. Just be aware that the flowering of a true ornamental grass is going to produce a very different appearance than that of a grass-like perennial such as liriope.

sunny...their website must be down. I just tried it and couldn't get through in any of 3 browsers. They may be down for maintenance. Hover your cursor over the link I posted, and the website URL will show up in your status bar.