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Gardening in Oz

Purple Fountain Grass

20 years ago

We planted a couple of these, and very nice they look too .. until I read that they're actually a bit of a pest and are frowned upon. So why are they still being sold, I ask myself. Then a friend told me that her plants (exactly the same) were hybrids and so wouldn't spread seeds all over the place. What to do?

Well I'm keeping them, but my original reasons for researching them was to know if you can cut them right down, and if so, when. When the frondy tails fall off, you're left with unattractive sticks, too hard to remove individually, so was wondering if you can chop them right back to start again. I can't find an answer to this.

Anyone?

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Comments (5)

pos02
20 years ago
They aren't native, so if you are going to keep them, you may want to remove the seed heads before they mature. Most of these grasses can be cut down to the ground after the flowers die, but I don't know a lot about Fountain Grass.
Liatris
20 years ago
Purple fountain grass seeds are sterile, so don't have the weed potential of a lot of other ornamental grasses.

Once any danger of frosts is past, cutting them practically to ground level will produce lush new foliage. That would also be a good time to divide them if you wish to do so.
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I bought a half-dozen of them last year, online, for $3-5 each delivered. They were overgrown in 4" pots. I got them on sale, in May and June, and potted them up to trade gallon containers. I planted them out in July. They reached full mature height before the end of the summer, and looked great throughout the fall.
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Just leave it be :-) Or if you must, you can cut off the broken stems.
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gw:zeezee-subtropical
19 years ago
Jennie, as I'm a "new" forum member I have just read your request. "Purple Fountain Grass" - Pennisetum setaceum 'Rubrum' will not become a weed. I have a plant label with me now as I'm just going to take 4 plants to my garden club this morning. Ours got a bit "messy" and we dug the whole plant out - and then divided it and put small pieces with roots into pots (we now have 12!)June/July in Qld is a good time to divide the plant. Hope this is of some assistance and only knew the proper name because I had the label!
Jennie60
Original Author
19 years ago
Thanks folks .. I did indeed cut the grass down very low, not quite to the ground, and it grew again no trouble and is looking lovely again.
Tacticalchic_yahoo_com
15 years ago
I was wondering if the purple fountain grass had to be cut down myself. Please advise

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