Great Plains, here is that same photo with some IDs attached. It's amazing when I study it, how different it is now. This photo is probably the best it ever looked. In reality it was a re-seeding nightmare. Yarrow and blue fescue were taking over everything, and it just looked like a mess most of the time. The Karl Foester plants got sooo huge and even the once-per-year cutting back was a big chore. And there were zero shrubs to anchor the scene and provide some order. So I've kept the well-behaved grasses, added masses of coneflowers (most of which have planted themselves at this point), allowed well-behaved self-seeders (penstemon, blue flax, ratibida, some catananche), and added a lot of shrubs. I took out 100% of the yarrow and blue fescue because they can't seem to exist in moderation. I can imagine that you would have great luck with penstemon. I sure do love them in all their forms and colors. Before you get too excited about coneflowers (echinacea) beware that they drink a lot of water. More than I thought. But I still love them so they will stay, and in time they will be pushed out by the shrubs and there won't be quite so many. Are the photos you posted with the blue adobe house in the background your place? It's fantastic and so regionally appropriate! A garden in these parts must have ornamental grasses if you ask me!

This observations is for zone 4/5 gardners. Up until winter of 2007/2008 I never successfully overwintered miscanthus cultivars either in in pots or that were divided and re-planted in the fall. The only success I had was last winter when I over wintered 4 miscanthus, 2 fargesia bamboo plus other assorted plants in my basement escape window well. Everything survived beautifully. (We have no children and use our basememnt only for storage so this was not a fire trap). My suggestion for northern gardners who want to transplant grasses in fall is do it ASAP, mulch with shredded leaves and cover the crown with a big pot weighted down with stones or brick. Using this method I have overwintered tender plants like snapdragons.

Not the best photo of Joe Pye since it was taken after a tropical storm last fall, but you can see that the plant does have standing power. Some blooms reach beyond our livingroom window so it's nice to see the butterflies and the birds which visit. The same one just a few days ago. Oh, and yes, this plant was winter sown. The blooms are lavender and the leaves run from a deep green to burgundy along the edges. I also have a 'Baby Joe' which reaches 4 feet as opposed to the one above which can reach 8 feet. In my gardens you will also find Chocolate Joe Pye which is the one with burgundy leaves and white flowers. It grows to about 4 to 5 feet. If I were you, and I had enough seeds, yes, I would try to SS some and then keep others for WSing. :O)

Alright, I couldn't put it off any longer so I reread the thread, looked at the grasses, and faced certain aspects of reality, such as I have to do the work myself or pay someone else to do it. I thought hard about pounding rebar into my rocky soil, and I looked at the two big, heavy, old sledgehammers in the tool shed, and I quickly lowered my standards. Maybe metal fence posts with the U-shaped channel would pound into the ground easier, slipping in between the rocks. And a discussion with a few guys at Home Depot introduced me to a mini-sledgehammer that's more my size. So I ended up with a 28 inch vinyl-coated woven wire fence, attached to 3 ft fence posts pounded 1 foot into the ground so 2 feet remains above-ground. I placed the posts outside the grass clump to give them room to grow and also to let them spread out a bit at the top. It's all green, so in the winter I may have to do some camouflage such as nandina suggests. At least they sort of match the peony supports near them. Tools Grass Fence #1 Grass Fence #2 The wire fence fits nicely into the notches in the fence post and the flange footing should help keep it upright. I don't know if this is tall enough, but I plan to attach the 4 ft Y-stakes to the posts later in the season. I could fairly easily replace the 3 ft posts with 4 ft posts and just raise the fence. ex I used the loose ends of the fence to fasten the overlap. I also used some short black cable ties as fasteners. The operation was easier than I expected so it won't be so hard to talk myself into modifying the supports if I have to. I did manage to stomp on a few plants in the process, and working with curious, very thorny roses looking over your shoulder can be challenging. It's not very elegant and the green posts sort of annoy me, but it's a start. Now I have to wait and see if it works. Claire