I've got a Miscanthus 'Gracillimus' in almost full shade, as well as several plants in mostly sun. It grows fine in the shady spot, but as you pointed out, it grows about half as tall (which isn't necessarily a bad thing because they get enormous) and it doesn't flower. I started Chasmanthium latifolium from seed this year. It was a slow germinator compared to the other native grasses I started from seed. But I've got 6 small plants about a foot tall now. Can't wait to see this when it flowers!

I have winter-sown six types of grasses this year. Most of them are native prairie grasses. Androprogon gerardii - Big bluestem Bouteloua curtipendula - Side oats grama Chasmanthium latifolium - Northern sea oats or River oats Lagurus ovatus - Bunny Tail grass Schizachyrium scoparium - Little bluestem Sorgastrum nutans - Indian grass I winter-sowed them April 12, in 1 and 2 liter bottles, with little hunks of seeds. The plan was to get plugs of grasses going this year. After an unusally warm stretch in mid-late April, most were sprouted by the end of April. Still waiting on the Chasmanthium, which has not sprouted yet. Supposedly it can be a good reseeder, so I'm not expecting it to be difficult to sprout, and the seeds are commercial purchased this year. Maybe it just needs warmer temps than the others.

John, If the area is sunny, I would highly recommend solarizing the soil vs. the sod cutter approach. It will be much easier and cheaper and better for the soil. You can find instructions all over the internet (just google "soil solarization") but the gist is to mow the grass as short as possible, irrigate the area deeply, and then lay clear plastic over the area and bury the sides in the soil. You can put a soaker hose underneath the plastic so that you can irrigate later if the soil underneath dries out. The clear plastic lets the sunlight in and traps the heat, and the water carries the heat deep down into the soil and makes pathogens more vulnerable. Leave it on for 4-6 weeks and your weeds, grass, weed seeds, and soil born diseases will be toast. It's important to use clear plastic, and use as thin a layer as possible. A single layer of 1 mil plastic works best. There have been studies that have shown that plants do much better in soil that has been solarized vs. un-solarized soil, but there is no consensus as to why. It's pretty satisfying to peel off that plastic and see nothing but nice clean soil... :) -Matt

Oh God, I am in the same experiment. When I first came here, and got this wildlife exemption, I did a lot of cedar burning because my husband likes things neat. He is from a military family of European German/Russians. He likes neat woods and he tends to over do things. He does not see the soul of the tree.. I am your ADD center of the storm of chaos kind of gardener. I do work now with systems in my mind but I see my mess as my major tool. My favorite saying (attributed to me) is "Nature Rewards a mess". I am amazed at how much a cut log holds back on a slope in a couple of years. The branches and twiglets become the bones of the soil and then the carbon. I like to think in idiom. I used too leave logs parallel to a slope but I also saw that one could direct waterflow and soil with a slanted log and end it ibn a V. I noticed how the criss crossing of natural branch patterns work to build things up. I was fascinated in this one stump that had a radiating collar of branch at its base and how that aged . Logs and slash is effective even on a flat. uses small logs and sticks amongst the slash there. My husband was so against this approach at first. I found that the power of result was in the doing. I set 2 rules. If you cut it down , you move to the final resting place, be it the burn pile or the ground arrangement. 2) if you want it neater, you pick it up because I like where it is at once I am done. Laziness won the day. Less is more , YEA..Before, I was the one moving his mess to his expectations when I was hearing that to keep the slash in the forest does not remove the nutrient load of the forest. I removed my resentment by removing my behavior. Things remained where I left them and with the last few wet years, he has seen that the run off was so much less where there was mess and puddles, wet spots, tanks, and small streams lasted for days, weeks longer where slash was left than where it was stripped clean. I love my husband but the land work did bring out tension of goals and he did not go to any semenars, chase down botanists to munch off of their learned points of view, , readings, Bamberger ranch and county agriboard workshops or troll wildlife forms for info, so through the years this has become my department.. I am sorry if this sounds like a bitch. We are both strong personalities. We find ourselves good at different things and we have learned to give breathing room.. He also is approving of how things look 4 years after I have been through an area.It just took awhile to bring him around. He saw how nature removed the bad hair cut look. The general opinion in the land restoration world is changing about cedar too. When I started. cedar was the bad kid on the block, supposedly naturally only in the the stream gorges only and we had an Oak savanna park on the rest. That opinion has changed and now the botanical historians are changing their tune. Being out on this land, it does not surprise me.They say now, that this was a cedar brake for ever around me that was stripped for railroad ties in the second half of the 19th century and then the ranchers continued where the lumber guys left off. Cedar was seen as a valuable commodity.. Some old growth cedar has been measured to 900 yrs old! I did not know that. The old ones on my land ones are getting a beauty and stateliness. The very young ones are darn good soil makers on difficult slopes. I have gone from trying to encourage grasses to encouraging diversity in the shaded areas. The slowest thing is to get a diverse understory that is not just small cedar. I have some toothache tree, agarita, evergreen sumac coming in . Getting new red oaks to succeed is hard. I am always saying Less is more. I have grown to like those far ranging low lateral cedar branches that keep deer away and incourage seedlings. I am starting to leave them as a natural deer cage and trim back the higher midrange branches to encourage sunlight to the wee ones, but not too much sunlight. I will deal with the awkwardness of the cedar at a later date if I get some teenage trees going. Cedar has become my number one tool. What kind of trees do you have amongst your cedar? Is your cedar mountain ashe ,or red berry cedar? I have a fair amount of young madrone escarpment black cherry, Lote tree, toothache tree, and red Oak. How do you manage your undergrowth?