..oh, yeah...i forgot to ask....grass 101....is it plant a grass, drink a beer...or drink a beer, plant a grass.....lmk......

One thing I can say about little blue stem is plant it in the crappiest, driest soil you have or it will flop. Give 'Gracillimus' a lot of room too. Mine is on it's fourth year and it is almost six feet wide at the top. It's absolutely beautiful.
I read your other post where Jake says that grasses are a man's perennial. I gotta laugh when I read that. He brings that up in a lot of his posts. I spent nearly the whole morning sitting in a lawn chair admiring my grasses. The miscanthus 'malepartus','nippon', and 'adagio' are in full bloom. Still waiting on 'giganteus', 'sarabande' and Saccharum ravennae. The seed heads are just about to pop out of the stems of calamagrostis brachytricha. The grasses in my yard give me more joy than any plant I have. I'm glad you've discovered them. You're going to have a ball.

Huh? That is my thought, now I need a homemade hefeweisen.

You're not alone, cream. I, too, dabble in this man's world but i prefer rum coolers over beer.

Karl Foerster is my favourite grass but probably because the Miscanthus and Panicums are zone pushing for me - some success with both but nothing I can brag about just yet. I'm also really fond of Deschampsia caespitosa (I have Schottland and Bronzeschlier (sp?). Blue Oat grass (Helictotrichon sempervirens) is also a winner in my books. I also have Calamagrostis brachytricha - very healthy, robust plants but no blooms on mine yet. Here's hoping my season isn't too short. Same for M. Malepartus - I have two plants that overwintered for me, but no blooms yet on them nor on M. sinensis purparescens. I'll have a few more coolers and wait it out.

Be prepared to have *lots* of Northern Sea Oats...it reseeds like crazy...at least in my zone. We have it in a display garden and have decided to move ALL of it to a parking lot island.

It's pretty easy to keep Sea Oats from reseeding. If you don't want to grow the grass from seed, simply cut off the seed heads before they ripen. You'll lose the interest of them in the garden, but they can be used in arrangements. If you want to grow from seed, which is very easy to do, let them ripen before harvesting. This way, you can sow them where you want them. If they self-seed, it's also easy to prick them out, and transplant them where you want them to be.

dang it, i bought two more miscanthus gracillimus and i don't know why except you guys are great salespeople.

also, thanks for the advise on sea oats. now, i know what blackie meant when he said give it a lot of room.

i'm also banking on winter interest......

cream....

Repeat after me...

1.) Plant a grass...

2.) Grab a seat and the refreshment of your choise....(rum is perfectly acceptable..although Jake and I may settle for a grey goose dirty martini....three olives, thank you..)
3.) Watch it grow....

Repeat steps 2 and 3 as often as the refreshment holds up....

4.) (only to be done in the spring) Cut it down...

5.) Repeat steps 2-3 for the rest of the year.

As far as the Sea Oats goes, not sur eit was me who spoke about giving them room. Mine are on my second year and to be honest, in my zone, and yours I believe, I have not had any oriblem with reseading. Guess its a bit too cold or too short of a growing season. I just let them go during the winter and cut them back in the spring. The clump did increase in size from last year to this, but not unreasonably, or any greater than any of my other clump forming grases. Do give your Gracillimus lots of room though and maybe that's what you remember because my Gracillimus may eventually crown out my sea oats, which are planted next to it.

Jake, Looks like we got another inmate for the aseyleum...

Hi...my names Blackie...and I'm a grass-a-holic...

oops, sorry to misquote you, blackie! i think what happened is in that other post i started you were talking about gracillimus and then went to the sea oats and then YOU shifted back to gracillimus and I didn't, and so the story goes!!!!

AgastacheMan...darn you....i had to google hefeweisen!!!!that's one point for the man's team!!!

Pudge...i'm pretty sure we can take them!!!!

cream

Looking back at my last post... "oriblem with reseading" ?? "Crown out my Sea Oats.." ???

Barkeep, I'll half anuthua...

Man this brewski thing is affecting my typin..

And belive me, cream...I have been misquoted many times..mostly by Black-ette, as she's refered to by my friends...I'm used to it. ;)

Tsk, tsk. You people are out of control. Spending money like it was growing on trees. Drinking excessively. Getting no exercise to stave off the paunch you're starting to develop.

I can see whatÂs happening to ya Âall !!! IÂve walked the walk and stumbled over the clumps and bottles trying to get to the shade of the Wisteria. Take control !!! .... while you still can !!

Professional help is around the corner.

As for grass questions  sorry about getting into the diatribe at such a late stage. Doing some design work in the neighborhood.

Need the money to buy more grasses when we do our fall tour. We only shop at botanical gardens, arboretums, nurseries and wineries.

cream  I would answer your questions but why repeat myself or more likely I would be repeating what others have stated which is what I would have said myself, if I myself were in front of the bus speaking for myself answering the questions you posted as I would have done if I was speaking before the others had spoken.

By the way there is always room on the bus for one more Âcuz this bus is the bus to happy grass land, the land of grassÂnadicts where no grass is left unloved.

There it is !!! Questions answered and it took no longer than a cold ÂfreshmÂnt would last on a hot day.

Grey Goose UP, one olive pleeze ! (The martini is for formal grass watching, like after a run through the garden hose, taking off my shoes and socks then sun drying my hair).

Beer is for the times when I need to shut down the machinery instantly and not waste time being pretty. Next question ?

Jake

This thread is hilarious, keep up the good work!!

Man, I had to shut everyone down and down a tall sugary shot of Absinthe. I had to celebrate, because I finally completed my trials for my grass selection for the open market in 2007. Crosses between Eragrostis spectabilis and thrichodes, and Miscanthus s. p. seedling x M. Rotsilber. Oh wait, another swig of Absinthe, and no, I won't fry the brain like some of our talented Renaissance artists did. It is just for the right time....anyways, back to the interesting thread. Um, ya, well I am a man in a man's world. LOL........I think the wormwood is getting to me.....lol

ok....i'm back....i had to have a backhoe come through...took out every one of these crazy grasses and tons more....tick me off BIG TIME......but i'm back.... and just planted 3 more karl foersters..and thanks to blackie (i think?) a morning light whatever it's called...i think it's his/her awesome grass i love..I planted it front and center......I NEED ENCOURGEMENT AFTER MY DIG.......oh, heck, i'll just go get a beer....and a chair.....and another beer...heck...where's my cooler...

cream

Ornamental grasses, a man's perennial ! Who ever came up with such a connotation ??

Reason for that verbiage had to do with my perennial whacko counterpart (wife) telling me " ... just because you got your grasses planted doesn't mean you can just sit there and watch 'em grow !!"

Dig me some more holes so I can get the remaining seventeen flats of perennials planted.

cream .... the answer to many questions are in the air around you. Breathe deeply, exhale slowly, take another slurp, wallow it around in your mouth, swallow ever so slowly, then slam down the rest of the 'freshmunt.

Bottom line ... dam that's good stuff.

Grasses are for everyone, even those of no knowledge of ornamental grasses. OGÂs, Oh-Gee's (not orgies) are easy to grow and care for.

I've proven that statement and what I've done was to refine the growing or ornamental grasses so that everyone could in fact grow and enjoy these beautiful floral happenings given to us by our forefathers of the garden world.

Goose Âup, one olive please !!

Brewskis are for the hot times in the garden when the sun melts your eyebrows, the sweat washes away any ambition you thought you had and you just plain donÂt feel like working any longer.

So it is only 9:30 ÂÂ.. IN MORNING.

Jake

ummmmm.. that would be a HIS, thank you...and yes it was Morning Light. You're gunna love it.

I too have Morning Light and enjoy it as much as I do Yaku Jima as well as other grasses like Heavy Metal (can't get enough of that pale blue-green color).

Then I turn around and watch Sarabande, Silberfeil, Cloud Nine, Silberfeder, Rubrum, Mt. Washington, National Arboretum (I like it better than the Hameln we have).

Let's not forget to turn the chair around and watch Malepartus, Jailbird Ben, Nippon, Bitsey Ben and Bubller Ben.

Over there I can see Karl, Puenktchen and The Blues, Prairie Sky, Little Bluestem, Overdam, Elijah, Oats (Northern Sea that is) and Blue Oat grass and Northern Lights.

Gee I almost forgot Morning Dew and Gracillimus and "Eri" (hasrdy pampus) and of course November Sunset.

Rest in peace Red Baron, Blue Fescue, Ponytails, Hair grass and Sand love grass, I miss you all.

After that trip through the grass lands I've got to replace the swivel on my chair.

Hopefully the beer guy and the Goose man show up on time. Hate to miss a day without the proper tools as I do my gardening.

Jake

All's well the beer guy and the goose man have arrived. The cooler's full to the brim, meaning that i can really get down and dirty doing my grass gardening.

Weather has been rather hot here the past several days and more.

The garden tools are wearing out. I seem to use more tools when the weather becomes an issue. We need to develop bigger, better tools that last longer than a few moments in the heat.

Might have to ponder that idea when i take my next break from my gardening tasks.

Jake

jake, i'm sure the perennial whacko appreciates your garden tools just as they are!!!

Not really as she isn't a beer or goose consumer like B57 and myself.

She prefers Long Island Iced Tea, wines, margaritas. But she does know what all those perennials are.

Sometimes she has to look them up in the book to relearn their common name.

Jake

Here's another woman's folly for onramental grasses. Just today.

As I said in other threads (the last Phormium tenax etc.), I ordered online some grasses.

The problem is that, as I fixed with the nursery, I picked up them at a fabolous gardening exposition which take place right in these days a few miles from here.. So as probably you already guessed given my premise, the buy list has streeeeeeeeeetched.

Here's what I bought:
. Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Karl Foester'
. Calamagrostis x acutiflora 'Overdam'
. Helictotrichon sempervirens
. Panicum virgatum 'Shanandoah'
. Panicum virgatum 'Heavy Metal'
. Pennisetum setaceum 'Cupreum Compactum'
. Miscanthus sinensis 'Yakushima Dwarf'
and until here nothing new

+++ new entries:
. Miscanthus sin. 'Morning Light', after having seen it I simply couldn't resist, it is TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BEAUTIFUL, probably the most beautiful grass I've ever seen
. Stipa lessingiana, very upright, gentle, in a word a candy
. Schizachyrium scoparium (Little Bluestem), it costed only 3,5 euros, why not to buy it? :-)

Now probably I have to plant some of them in my bathroom or in kitchen (so it would be easier to grab a beer and watch them grow) .. but they're too gorgeous!!!!

A -

Here's what you have to look forward to in a couple of years with your M.s. Morning Light...

{{gwi:260179}}

My favorite OG, bar none....

Damn, I've been looking for a Shenendoah but there are none to be found around here...Guess I'll wait until next year.

Blackie

Divide something, Blackie. I've got a bunch of 'Shenandoah.' We can do a trade next spring.

Blackie I already know this picture and had it clear in my mind when I made my purchase.. BUT that grass is terrific. I'm seeing it just now out of the window (I haven't planted it yet) with the morning light behind it and.. WOW!!!
BTW yesterday I dug up an ugly & horribly invasive shrub to make room for 'her Majesty the Miscanthus'. Let's see what happens!

Positive thought: grasses are probably as additive as shoes, but faaaaaaar less expensive (at least until you have only a small garden ;-).

A. -

This year I made two new beds, which include grasses. They are at the lower end of my lot between my neighbors lot and mine. Last week I had a worker friend, who also gardens, over at lunchtime just to see how things have worked out. Her words were, "Those beds will double in size by next year, I guarantee it." I told her I didn't think so but deep down in I KNOW she's right because I'm gunna need more room to support my "habit". Good thing I only have a couple of different pairs of shoes...

Blackie

After reading this thread, I feel like I've been at a meeting for grass-a-holics

"Hi, my name is.... and I'm addicted to grasses" (ornamental that is)

Anyway, I just purchased my first grasses - 3 Northern Lights, and 2 Karl Foersters. I think some of the big ones are gorgeous, but don't have the room for them. Although, if I become addicted to OG's I'm sure I'll make room, LOL!