Tex, what's that dark green/reddish grass toward the left side of the last photo?

Woodstea, it isn't a grass. Its Hesperaloe parviflora which is grass-like. Its green with curly hairs on the thick succulent leaves and puts up tall asparagus like pink blooms which are ornamental all summer & attract hummingbirds. Its easy to find commercially and very common around here.

Ah, I've looked at that on the High Country Gardens website. I've thought about trying it on the south side of the house, along with Muehlenbergia reverchonii, but I think I'd have to rework the soil there quite a bit.

It is looking good. Some flowers like the Bee balm will seed between the heads in spring and be gone by fall.

I need to do that to a 40 X 40' area of KR bluestem. But I need a rototiller and i am frightened the tiller will break on the rocky soil.

When I started working on this a couple of years ago I rented one of those big rear-tine tillers. It wouldn't get far before it would suddenly lurch up after hitting something, which is how I discovered that crews had left big pieces of old sidewalk buried in the bed. I gave up on deep rototilling and used a long garden fork to find and dig the sidewalk pieces out. After that I only tilled once, with a 2-cycle cultivator, to mix some compost in, and I grew a couple of rounds of cover crops (buckwheat and then rye), leaving the residue on the soil afterwards.

I'm pretty sure your soil is way rockier than mine though. My problem was more about clay and how to improve drainage through it.

This week city crews showed up at my neighbor's to replace her connection to the sewer main. She's had a small sinkhole for several years there. They dug up about half of her hell strip lawn, and now there's a hole about 15 feet deep with concrete bracing along the sides.

Damage to my strip has been minimal. They trampled a couple of sedges and an Allium, spray-painted an orange line over some sedums and a nice piece of limestone, but overall I consider myself fortunate.

That's hell strips for you, I guess. No guarantee that the city might need to tear them up at any point in the future. I try to prepare myself mentally for that.

i wonder what they're going to fill that hole with.

I had a close call. Two houses to the west and across the street were the unlucky people who lived in the right place to dig to replace a broken water line which took big machinery and all day to do. You ought to see the size of the dug out area in the front of their property. I would have been beside myself. It looks like they ended up refilling it by putting the orangey looking subsoil right on top and its now a lumpy messy area that looks like a big terrible grass + clay/dirt scab.

Late June update: Asclepias tuberosa, Baptisia australis var. minor, Sporobolus heterolepis. The grasses have been trimmed a bit to tidy up the space, eventually I plan to remove some of them as the perennials fill in.

Looks real nice to me woods tea. I like the lighter yellowish grass leaves with the greener ones, the similar textures of those two work good together. Your butterfly weed looks a lot better than any I ever grew, mine always got maggoty with aphids, the stems completely covered and then by the time those were gone, the caterpillars denuded them so I finally got rid of them after 3 years. Now I only grow antelope horns milkweed but that orange sure is pretty and I do love orange.

With all the rain this year its hard to judge if yours are too close together or not, they look good in the photo. I'm tempted to trim the tips of my Mulenbergia rigens deergrass. They not only come down to the ground, they have another 12 or 15 inches or so of leaves laying swirled around the plants on the ground and it looks really sloppy. They've never done that before but with all the rain they just kept growing. The Panicum 'Heavy Metal' comes up to my nose, its just putting out seed heads. The gulf muhlys are at least 1/3 wider than usual.

Beautiful blooms!!!! I don't have luck with those milkweeds either....Talking about milkweeds, yesterday, I just captured 3 asclepius texana plants at the nursery nearby . I have not even been able to find good seed for these. The seed I had went bad when I misplaced them. I was taken surprise by these plants, so I had to bring them home.. I told the guys, I could kiss whoever was responsible for them.. They are in the ground under some cedar today. breaking speed records of me getting them in before the rain.. I knocked off two major stems planting them. Stems WITH blooms! So I am seeing if they root. Anyone know if milkweeds root from cuttings? I hope to get seed from the remaining blooms. I just love the structure of milkweed blooms

Re: picking the trash out of the prickly plants: even better than barbecue tongs are "Grabbers" that are usually advertised as an orthopedic aid. Longer reach than tongs, rubber at the ends for better grip, and levered closure which is easier than holding the tongs closed. Useful for many other things too such as getting clothes out of the dryer without getting into the dryer; picking up objects behind radiators and between the washer and dryer, behind the w/d, and the vanity and the wall. You don't have to be physically limited to get a lot of use out of "grabbers".

Marie, I would have never thought of that, thank you for the tip. I use a pair of large heavy duty tongs to get the leaves which have blown in and collected among pads along with a very long kitchen knife to scoot leaves out into piles outside the cactus, yellow kitchen gloves are a must. With the tongs I patiently pull out leaves (which are easier to grab when they are wet) it takes quite a while to finally get them all out of there because each grab is a very small amount so its a lot of back and forth from the cactus to the bucket. Thankfully its only a once a year spring job which is all done in a comfortable squatting down position because each cactus does take patience and a tedious while.

Woodstea, after seeing your neat grasses I trimmed the leaves off those ridiculously overgrown deer grasses yesterday. Looks 100% better.

TR, I had the same problem with my prairie dropseed. It arches over and touches the ground with some length on the ground, like you say, swirling together. It was the same last year, maybe will be in most years here with at least average rainfall. I gathered it up into a vertical bunch and sliced off a few inches.

In retrospect I would have planted these a little farther apart. It's a tough decision with a new bed and my lack of experience. I suppose I erred on the side of planting too close out of impatience, worried about weeds and such, though also it was my goal not to have any ground space visible between the plants. I'd seen dense plantings like the ones on the High Line and wanted something like that.

Perhaps prairie dropseed is best either when it has the space to achieve its full form, or else when it's planted en masse without other grass species.

Thanks for the Texas milkweed pics, Mara, what a great find. I'd be interested to hear whether you have success with your cuttings.

A. tuberosa has been fantastic for me in its second year, surprising since last year I had to prop it up with rocks to keep it off the ground, and I also had lots of aphids.

This year I haven't seen any aphids on these plants. Why that is I don't know for sure, although I almost always see a ladybug or two around when I look closely. I like to think it helps to have other native plants around (especially mints like Pycnanthemum), and to leave the aphids to do their worst without washing them off. I have heard of people who have no luck with that approach, though.

TR, have you tried A. viridis? I would think that one would do well in Oklahoma as well. I just started some from seed this year, but only managed to get one transplanted successfully. I made a little clearing in the buffalo grass lawn for it. So far so good.

Woods Tea, this will probably label me as a natives plant heretic and a lot of people will most likely disapprove but I'm not interested in growing milkweed. Frankly there is so much rampant vine milkweed growing into and on so many shrubs, plants and chain link fences around here in such bountiful abundance that I don't feel the need to grow it in my yard where space is scarce and there are so many other plants I like better that don't attract aphids or look terrible once the caterpillars have eaten them to the nubbins. I'm content to do my part in the national 'Save the Monarchs' call by furnishing pollinators for the monarchs, they love my lantanas. Its hard to distinguish vine milkweed from bindweed at a glance early in the season, once it gets pods on it there's no mistaking it but the aphids are another easy way to tell its milkweed vine. It grows on my neighbors chain link fence and there really is no getting rid of it once it takes hold.

I've got the one antelope milkweed but the only time its ornamental is early spring and its nominal at that, unusual looking is more accurate. Its low growing and nearly dies back completely in summer when its thankfully hidden by the more ornamental plants and grasses.

Sounds reasonable. I'm a pretty big fan of A. tuberosa, which I think works well surrounded by prairie dropseed. I've got four other milkweed species but they are all new this year, too early to tell whether I'll like them in the long term. I think A. incarnata is going to work well out back in the rain garden.

Did I mention that I added three Muhlenbergia reverchonii this year? I loved the look of that down at the end of your hell strip. They're in a different part of the yard, got a late planting this spring so not much growth yet.

I divided a couple M. riverchonii, the two I had to dig out for the water meter readers so they can find the meter. They have been very slow growing but then most established grass clumps are when moved or divided and I've moved more than a few due to the many trials and errors of finding good combinations. After 4 years volunteers from seed have been nearly non existent which can be a good thing with grasses.

I pulled this stock photo up online of a climbing milkweed. Every milkweed I've ever seen up close looks buggy and sticky like this all season. Now don't get me wrong, I'm all for encouraging wildlife and such but I decided this sort of interesting wildlife & loveliness is better off happening elsewhere and is not allowed in my 'up front, the first thing you see' Hell Strip.

Confession: I didn't dig out the Russian Sage after all. Its still very much alive, so old and big I just couldn't, besides, its too pretty usually and attracts too many interesting pollinators. This year its 'texture' meaning just cut back stems, but steadily forming some leaves.

Earlier with all the rain I did get a major aphid infestation on my artemisia (Silver King), the entire row was covered. I've never seen so many lady bugs in various stage of maturity in all the time I've lived here, my main soldiers have always been lacewings. The plants are still stunted however due to the rain + aphid attack. I can see lacewing nymphs on that leaf below.

back to "grabbers" for a moment: I can lift 3 men's t-shirts from the dryer and bend about 25 degrees less with them. They extend your grip about 2 feet.

TR, my A. tuberosa were covered in aphids like that last year for about a month. At the time I thought I would give them another year or two to see if the aphid problem took care of itself. If not, I planned to dig them out of that hell strip bed where infested plants would be too visible and could discourage a future native plant gardener. Fortunately this year I haven't had the problem, but I realize it could happen in the future. It's still early this year.

Milkweeds have really grown on me. I like the look of the foliage on A. viridis and A. sullivantii in particular, a sturdy sort of thick-leaved look, and the flowers are spectacular.

One I am really liking this year is plains coreopsis because I let more of them come up than last year. The tall wispy stems and barely there leaves make the tiny yellow with red bands flowers seem to be on thin wands gently floating over the grasses which hold them up and the plants themselves don't compete. I've seen some fields lately outside of the city along the roadsides that are solid yellow with them right now, they also come up wild along streets out in the industrial sections of the city in otherwise weedy looking areas. The seeds stay in hard round shells for quite some time when they are finished so its easy to control seeding and the plants need almost no room to grow since its all vertical.

There is a plant up the street that is definitely going into the hell strip next year. The guy has three big rounded mounds of wild orange cosmos thats almost striking enough to make you wreck the car trying to make out what it is. They must have hundreds of flowers on each nearly solid orange nicely mounded plant and they've got that ferny foliage that sort of disappears and looks wild in the good way, the kind of wild that just fits in so well among the grasses. Its native to the American SW and Mexico. I think I'll ask the guy for some seeds.

The bluestem grasses from seeds I collected at the History Museum are really coming around in the strip--planted lean and mean, cooking in hot sun higher up on the west end because they get so tall, I'd noticed several were lodging badly at the museum. So far they are very stiff and straight with a nice glaucous blue, a couple are putting up beefy seed stalks which are almost waist high while other plants are still fairly small. I need to shoot some photos, I've been lazy with the camera this year since before the heavy persistent rains and the damage and overgrowth that occurred which sort of put me off taking pictures.

Hey WoodsTea, hows your H-strip? Mine has suffered some ups and downs this year. The poor Russian Sage is nearly history but a few straggling stems remain. Mostly we are overgrown this year but I finally took some pictures today and glanced at those earlier ones I posted, what a difference a couple months and a biblical flood made.

I'm real happy with my bluestem's but I definitely planted the Big Bluestem too close to the Little BS's and the neighbors bermuda there at the west end of the strip. Funny how space can shrink on a person.....

Below is the really tall Little Bluestem I keep raving about from the seeds I gathered at the History Museum off those huge ones. The color is nice -- very blue -- getting more blue as summer wears on. The plants have grown pretty good considering they were only seedlings last year. That smaller grass by the pole is the Big Bluestem 'Red October'. The blue blob attempting to eat the sidewalk is Dalea greggi.

Here is a closer shot, that bluestem right next to the pole is chin high, I'm 5'8 so I guess that makes it about 5ft tall (I was standing in my neighbors yard which is higher up so they look shorter but I did the test and they come to my chin). I'm in love with these and hope next year they really fill out, that biggest one by the pole is very promising in form and behavior in this really dry spot, with that kind of height I noticed they tend to flop when I collected seed.

The bare spot is where the sad remains of the nearly drowned Russian Sage is. No purple this year.

Surprising considering all the rain, the Mexican Feather Grass looks great. I started new ones this year, they get big and ratty looking after a couple seasons but there are always fresh volunteers to replace them. I let them come up in the front more than I have in the past, they add good texture.

This isn't in the H.S. but I wanted to show you the Los Lunas little bluestem plants I bought from HCG. I interplanted tall verbena but its sort of between blooms at present due to summer dole-drums. I'm hoping to have more verbena next year. Los Lunas is a nice blue (not really obvious in this picture) and about waist high. The three I bought first are way ahead of the second two I ordered but in all I splurged & bought 5. Its very similar to the ones in the strip, tall but not as tall. The height could be due to the rain, they were described as shorter than this.

great thread; glad to see it pop up

Texasranger -- now that I look again at your beautiful house, I think I'd be inclined (if I were the homeowner) to incorporate some "modern" landscaping; e.g., geometric and repetitive forms rather than naturalistic, to complement the house. What you have done, is beautiful, of course -- just a random thought.

Um, OK. Actually I am into prairies, very seriously into it. This is Oklahoma, we are a prairie state & I am proud of it. I don't care for landscaping that looks man-made and artificial, besides, a mostly blank hardscape like you have down there would be murderous to maintain here and would work against nature.

well, I knew that -- just a thought that popped into my head upon seeing your house. No filter!

TR, your yard is gorgeous as always, even without the Russian sage this year. I want to work on getting some bluer cultivars of little bluestem planted. A number of mine are some unnamed local ecotype and have almost no blue in them, just a medium green like everything else around them. Even the Blue Heavens aren't terribly blue, but they are just starting to get stems up.

I love big bluestem, hope to always have a bit of it in my yard somewhere. I've got about a dozen clumps of it, mostly on the downhill side of the rain garden berm out back where it gets lots of strong afternoon sun. Often when I go out there to have a look, mourning doves come flushing up out of it. Too early for a verdict on this planting -- I think it's a bit too wild looking, might be a better spot for 'Northwind', etc., especially since that gets tall earlier in the season. Here you can see it behind Asclepias incarnata (there is a row of Culver's root between the two, but it's still pretty small and or flopped out of view):

But back to hell strips. Mine is looking decent despite the heavy rains:

I would like to see more contrast in the future. Partly this should take care of itself. There are a half dozen or so Baptisia australis var. minor in there, still pretty small and floppy. I expect them to stand out strongly in future years. The hole in the foreground is where a leadplant seedling was chewed to the ground about a week ago. I need to make some more cages -- the rabbits seem to love this stuff:

On the north end of the strip it's shady during summer, so it's mostly sedges (C. jamesii and C. penslyvanica) with still quite a bit of space between them. I didn't like the too-abrupt transition between them and the taller grasses in the rest of the strip, so I added a Rhus aromatica 'Gro-Low' this spring where they meet. I expect it to expand and dominate that part of the strip. I love the color/texture contrast with the grasses and am hoping it will turn a nice red and look fantastic this fall behind the coppery straw color of the dropseed. It was in a gallon pot from the nursery and has grown a lot this summer (that's Allium stellatum leaning into it near the top):

Last thing, here are a few Talinum calycinum I planted on your recommendation, with a forgotten cultivar of Coreopsis verticillata in front. The Coreopsis was an impulse buy last fall and emerged so late this spring I thought it hadn't survived. Not sure yet if I will keep it. I'm hoping the fame flower will spread as much as you've predicted, especially along the edge of the strip where there's still a lot of bare ground.

Oh wow!!! What a difference! Its really coming along, the changes you made adding the various native plants was just what was needed --- its looking like strip of prairie now. Did you end up having to take out some of that glorious dropseed? That would have been hard for me to do.

I seeded single flowering type of zinnia to add some similar effects that you are getting with the coreopsis, just for some color in the heat of summer to add to the low growing, lowly weed I rely on for constant yellow--helenium annum (bitterweed). Call it cheating, it is. I scattered some seed and let the plants come up where they will. Between the bitterweed and flameflower I am assured of low growing color no matter what but the bigger flowers on the little zinnias are cheerful and reliable. Zinnia is an Oklahoma staple in summer, always has been & it reminds me of my grandma.

You are the second person I've run into in a week on GW who planted Low Gro Sumac. I almost ordered one in spring and then didn't from HCG. Now its out of stock. I hope you will post a picture in fall when it turns red, I want to see & I'm so glad you posted it while its green because I can't visualize it well from the HCG website. Maybe they will get more in and I can order one in fall or next spring.

That A. incarnata is really pretty and I like it with the taller grasses, seems like several clumps growing in a group would be nice on that one.

I am trying to think where I'll move the Big Bluestem I obviously planted badly, it'll depend on how good the fall color actually turns out to be. I keep thinking I want it on the Hell Strip and I'm actually playing with the idea of removing the overly big, space hog Muhlenbergia 'flamingo'. That one is getting too large for the width and its covering the water meter. Its not vertical as advertised, it splays out in a huge way once the blooms come on and its just a bit much.

There is a gas station that has a row of Big Blue and they spaced the plants fairly far apart. The grass itself is not all that ornamental but come fall it is. I ought to try to take a picture. Anyway, I thought it looked nice spaced out like that more so than it would growing close together and it is one big grass (width-wise) compared to when I first noticed it last fall. They are starting to send up stalks so I ought to go in fall when its turned red. I think I mentioned the way they planted these once before? If so, just ignore.

Here is an area out back with bluestem in front of and next to Panicum 'Northwind'. These are seedlings I planted late last year from S. 'Blue Heaven'. I am utterly mixed up about LBS now. These plants don't look like the ones I grew last year but the rain is making everything a bit weird. Anyway, the BS is as tall as the Switchgrass but it didn't get a blue look until just recently. I have noticed a lot of the BS don't get that powdery blue color until they start putting up the seed stalks and it gets hot & dryer. Right now I would be hard pressed to tell the difference between different varieties except that the S. 'Prairie Blues' are a more minty color and seem to have finer, shorter leaves.

The shorter, more yellow grass is the plain jane type of Blue Grama. The shorter Switchgrass to the left is P. 'Rotstahlbusch'. At the end there is a Leadplant but its not in the photo.

Same area from a different angle

Seedlings I planted last summer from 'Blue Heaven' plants. These aren't putting out stalks yet. The grass to the left is Pine Muhly, the yellow are bitterweed plants. The blurry spot is where I dropped sweat on the camera lens. Dew point has been 79 of late. Totally Miserable.

I fell for Low Grow when I saw it at High Country Gardens several years ago. I planted in the front yard and it grew and didn't stop. It was just a blob of green that didn't fit. Transplanted it to other locations. It is growing best (4 x 4 ft) in part shade at the bottom of a steep slope. The others planted on slopes in sun are knarly and slower growing but I think they will eventually get bigger . I thought these would have good fall color, but so far they have not.

I'm sorry to say I'm underwhelmed although the big curb planting at HCG was beautiful.

I've often wondered about what causes plants like LBS to be more or less blue/silver in different environments. It wouldn't surprise me if plants that are reliably blue in a typical Oklahoma summer would be greener for me here in Kansas City where there's more rain -- or lower pH, richer soil, etc. That's sure what it seems like just based on the few little bluestem I've planted.

I'm cautiously optimistic about the Gro-Low sumac. I've seen a number of different reviews about it with some saying the fall color isn't that great. So far I've been really happy with its summer form and color. If I don't ever get any good fall color, though, I am not sure I'll keep it long-term. I've just got to have something red for fall contrast with the grasses. What I'd really love is the native sumac I see out on the Kansas prairies (probably Rhus glabra), but I know it is much too aggressive for a small urban yard and that the height would be a problem, even if I cut it to the ground every year. I think it looks great out there in areas that they burn every couple of years.

TR, do you have the southwest native Zinnia grandiflora, or are they the more typical form sold at nurseries (Z. elegans?) that I saw a lot of growing up in Kansas?

I want the Low Grow Sumac for a difficult area. In summer its dry shade but it gets full sun in spring and fall as the sun's rays move further south and gets lower so it comes through the neighbors trees. Red would be nice but mostly I want a native ground cover that will cover some ugliness of the 'stair-step' along the border of my property, the ground next door is higher by several inches. I started two Three Leaf Sumac shrubs back there already. I saw these growing at a Government Building with other natives and I like the looks of the small leaves & interesting berries. Vinca Major which I hate used to be there along with privet which I have been removing. I did consider planting a smooth leaf sumac but like you, I decided its too aggressive.

WoodsTea, Does the low-gro sumac root in the ground as it grows like some ground covers? That would be a real nice thing. I could start new plants.

The zinnias are 'Profusion' single flower series. I like the orange and yellow ones. I picked three up last summer after re-doing the area below for some 'emergency' temporary color and ended up really liking a few of them among the grasses for spots of color. I scattered seeds from those three plants. I tried sowing Z. grandiflora from seeds I ordered but had no success. I got some in a trade and had 0 success there too. I imagine had they come up the flood would have killed them anyway.

Zinnia's and Little Bluestem. The purple is Prairie Verbena. Its very fernlike and weaves along the ground among the grasses. It bloomed all summer into late fall.

I forgot to mention. The native genotypes of Little Bluestem around where I live vary from one area to the next. I've seen a very tall type that is green with hints of red, especially the stems as they rise up very tall, the stems are deep red but so are the tips of the leaves and around the base.

Another type is very blue and I often see this type growing out of sandstone outcroppings where the plow couldn't get to it, especially along the interstate going north. These are shorter and have a somewhat different form, more like the cultivars being sold.

There is also a very tall deep blue kind and it looks just like the green type in form. The stems of both of these real tall types look different than the named types you see for sale online, the seeds are not as "all together" compact and fluffy looking because the bloom stems are so tall. They both have a stiffer, vertical, pointy look that is hard to miss. Its hard to describe but they just look different. The deep blue kind is what I saw at the History Museum and what I planted in the Hell Strip, I'd call it a Gun-metal blue. I noticed the seedlings are all very blue at the museum.

The powdery-est, bluest, most stand-out grass I see growing in the wild is Indian Grass. It always stands out visually because its lighter, very light by comparison. I planted 3 last fall but so far they are too young to judge. You don't notice the Big Bluestem really until it puts up seeds, then you can't miss it because they stand taller, above all the others.........turkey feet in the air against a blue sky. I don't see it very often.

I've only had the Gro-Low sumac since spring, so I couldn't tell you from personal experience, but I'd expect it to expand via root suckers like it seems all the Rhus species do. I guess that means rhizomatous instead of stoloniferous, which is what I think you are describing. I have thought it might be wise to put some sort of barrier around it like people do for bamboo, but for now I'm going to wait and see.

Prairie verbena is one I haven't heard of until today, but I do have some of its sibling, rose verbena. There are a couple of small sprigs of it on the street side of the hell strip, just getting started. I don't have high hopes for it, mainly because that's the side where the heaviest snow gets piled. I wonder if it might be better to replace the top several inches of soil on that side with gravel.

Marie, did you notice if it roots as it grows? How big did yours get?

I got the verbena in a mixed native seed pack here locally. I love it. Mine has bloomed all season, spring to fall. (all that rain don't ya know)

Same hill, last fall and this summer. Little Bluestem 'The Blues'. I had to thin out a lot of volunteers. I planted them along the driveway up front.

OPERATION BLUESTEM........

I've been digging and potting up plants & letting them adjust a few days in shade to go into the bank where I'm ripping out all the variety (looks messy) and replanting in solid bluestem on the ugly west side. Its an experiment. So far I have collected about 44 various sized small volunteers from Bluestem 'Blue Heaven'. I dug out more last night under lights and I keep looking for more. Its so hot and humid, I can only do stuff at night right now.

woodstea, well here I am going back and forth about ordering another Big Blue 'Red October' which should tell you I am very happy with the one I got last year. Very upright, even the leaves are stiff and straight and its starting to turn a bit purple while only just putting up the stiff stalks that are now about waist high.

I pulled up High Country Gardens to see if I'm going to take advantage of the last day of the 20% off sale they extended for three more days. What do you know? They have a spanking new grass --- Sorghastrum nutans 'Thin Man'.

With a descriptive name like THIN MAN described as VERY BLUE, how much more tempting can it possibly get?

Check it out. At least it gives me time to think about it because its not part of the 20% off so the pressure's off. I can see it in the strip. Is that skinny or is that skinny? The color is fabulous and this month is my birthday. A good excuse if you ask me. We pick out what we want around here and of course that'll be grasses, just like last year's present.

I should add that since Indian Grass is our state grass, I owe it to my state where I was born and lived all my life to show my loyalty and pride by growing this fine noble grass in my Hell Strip. Don't ya think that is the honorable thing to do? That tears it. I'm ordering it.

TR2, Thin Man is a stunning grass. I love your hell strip, in fact I love your whole yard. So much more interesting than the grass you had earlier.

My town has no sidewalks, so no hell strip. I plant right up to the curb. Amazingly, I've never had real issues with the snow that gets dumped on my bed during the winter.

I did my state proud. I ordered 3 of them last night. Turns out if the order is $40 or more you can use a $5 off coupon -- PlantInFall -- so I had to add another plant, you know how it is. I got a 'Prairie Butte' Sand Cherry, low growing ground cover shrub with white flowers in spring and bright red leaves in fall. Likes it real dry so its going on that west side where all those tree roots suck the ground dry.

There is a field near the parking area for the Konza Prairie in Kansas that has sweeps of big bluestem and Indian grass running through it. I saw it in August last year, loved the blue & gold of the Indian grass in the sunlight against the darker gallery forest behind it. Wow.

I actually ordered a couple of Indian Steel plants last year in the fall sales from SRG, but never got them in the ground and they didn't survive in the containers I left them in. I guess I got a little carried away with that sale.

Thin Man looks pretty great, though I imagine it wouldn't be so stiff in my soil. I'll be interested to hear how it works for you.

The Prairie Butte made up for the LowGro Sumac that is now unavailable due to me waffling on it. I figure it'll do sort of the same thing with the red leaves. Cost me only about $2 with that coupon.

I bought three Indian Steel last year too. I need to find a better spot with searing sun, dry and cruel. Maybe I should add some bad dirt? One looks a bit better but the other two really splay out, especially the stems they are putting up which is leaving the middle bare with everything is growing outward at a sharp angle. The ones I see on the side of the road are lighter blue than the bluestem and very vertical.

There are some especially pretty Indian Grass plants growing out a sandstone outcropping where they cut out the rock for the road. The better one I have is in deep sand and its growing great guns but its not light blue like that and its not stiff by any definition. I think deep sand is too moist for the roots and its not going to have that look unless its growing in suitably cruddy dirt (as opposed to soil).

I'll definitely let you know how these new ones do. I'm moving Indian Steel, just need to figure out where they might do better. How about I plant them on that sandstone outcrop?

September update:

The hell strip has turned into a big fuzzball with all the prairie dropseed in it. I'm not very crazy about this at all. Back when the milkweed was first blooming I was happy to see the strip when returning from work, but now I find myself trying to look past it. I don't hate it exactly, it's just too indistinct for my tastes.

For now I think I'm going to leave it alone. It's a little hard to see what's where, plus I am busy working on other areas of the yard. I am thinking seriously though about pulling maybe a third of the prairie dropseed plants next spring and working in a few other plants with tighter (or at least different) structure. I could use a fall bloomer as well.

Last update for the season, I think. One evening this week some recent rain and late afternoon light really brought out the reds in the hell strip:

After that the only thing I should need to do before spring is remove the occasional Schnapps bottle.

That red is gorgeous!

I went out and shot these a few minutes ago. For some reason, I can only load one picture per post, that started a few weeks ago for some unknown reason. Any one else have that problem?

We haven't had a freeze or frost yet but we are supposed to drop down to 30 or lower Sunday night. Leaves are turning finally and I'm getting my usual loads of Pin Oak blowing in.

I found if I hold my hand over the lens (you can see my hand at the top) I avoid the glare wiping out the photo. The grasses are really shining right now in late afternoon.

On top of not being able to post more than one picture, I loose my type if I don't insert the photo first and I cannot add a link either, it wipes the whole page clean. Frustrating.

H. S. from the east

TR2, I didn't see your question from a few months past. The rhus Low Grow in partial shade and better soil are least 4 feet wide, maybe 5. It is staying low. It has been a beautiful red with some yellow. This is the first year I remember it coloring up so well. The problem is when all the surrounding trees drop their leaves the effect is greatly diminished. I think it may be better sited in a big blank area where its foliage can be appreciated both when it is green and colored up.

Muhlenbergia 'flamingo', Muhlenbergia 'riverchonni', baby Night Blooming Hesperaloe, gaillardia and Pin Oak leaves

And finally, HS from the street. Its not exactly low-grow in spots. Thats my shadow. Marie, I ordered Pawnee Buttes Western Sand Cherry instead but thanks for the info.

Notice 'W' marks the spot for the water meter. I think they are trying to tell me something.

There's not as much red as you see in the photo most of the time. It was just one of those weirdly lit evenings. It reminded me of a moment from my youth when I looked out into the backyard after a tornado had passed close by. My dad was standing out by the fence looking at the sky and everything looked like I was wearing pink sunglasses. He was only about 35 at the time and it's a memory that really sticks in my mind as something rare and transcendent.

Remind me which one is the M. riverchonii? I planted three this year that I think I will need to move a bit in the spring. I get the sense that they have a larger spread than whatever site I was looking at said they did.

Marie, what you say about the red in the Gro-Low is exactly right. It's almost buried right now by the oak leaves from the neighbor's yard and I don't notice it unless I'm really up close. All those grasses I've got around it are keeping the leaves from blowing on down the street. We'll see if it still has color when most of the leaves are down and I do another raking.

Such a beautiful palette in your yard, TR2, especially in that second photo.

See that riverchonii in the picture? I bought three originally based on HCG spacing recommendation for that single spot. Its big. At least three feet across + a bit more depending on amount of rain (I am mentally picturing a yardstick). The other two planted closer to the street used to hang over the curb. When it rained, the blooms turned into something that resembled wet dogs laying on the street getting weighed down from collecting leaves and other nastiness washing downhill, it was really gross. Anyway, one plant was plenty. The M. flamingo was described as "vertical, good for narrow spaces" by HCG. Yea, right. Just wait til it blooms, then you can forget all about that vertical part and its bigger than I expected. Its the same size as M. lindheimerii aka Big Muhly. When it blooms is when it hides the water meter.

I love the soft colors in fall with the different shades of grasses. I look out the window every afternoon and it makes me feel good seeing them catch the late rays of the sun.