Purple Millet? It is an annual. Mind you, I have never grown it

Ornamental Millet "Purple Majesty"

Also Check Santa Rosa Gardens . they carry a Pennisetum Princess that is purple and dark green. Again , I have not grown it since it won't like my dry soiless digs. Also they have Pennisetum Princess Caroline , Pennisetum Princess Molly, and Pennisetum Royal Lady. They are all Pennisetums like the fountain Grass. I do not know if they would be tougher and less cranky. I have always found that the Purple fountain Grass is marginally hardy here and acts like an annual. The Napier grass listed above grass has a colder hardiness rating. If you haven't ordered from Santa rosa Gardens, you will be very pleased with the outfit. They do 2 sales . One in early summer. and one in fall.

I had forgotten SR has a good selection of grasses. Those pennisetum you listed are gorgeous. I also found a carex which i think I grow in a container. Will ck the local Nursery store to see what they have.

Remember there were several switchgrass cultivars with purple/burgundy color when I was considering it for a spot; 'Hot Rod' is one I recall. Went with something else, so no experience. But grasstrials.com has results in spreadsheets from trials on many cultivars at several universities, including Texas Tech, State, and A&M.

I almost recommended Hot Rod. It gets color in the fall. SRG has Hot Rod too.

Ohhh, that’s purdy. I’ll ck it out

Nice photos!

Texasranger, my gulf muhly was like that. I planted little plants and it was years b4 they were lookers but they’re finally there.

I remember quickly scanning an article which discussed which grasses s/b pruned and which s/not. Wondering if pennisetum purple fountain grass is in the no prune group. I prune ours. Last year DH and I divided the PFG. You’d think that if it needed dividing, it means it liked where it was growing. However, with a row of 7-8 plants, I don’t see the wow I had envisioned.

Every fall I start lusting after grasses moving softly in the wind. OTOH, they’re good snake hideaways so....

bostedo, I read trials and hot rod didn’t look impressive, unless I misunderstood excel charts.

Yes, looks to be a very inconsistent performer by trial plot and time. Texasranger's experience is probably more typical than not.

You mean a punk???

She has trialed a lot of the grasses. She knows what she speaks about.

I'm thinking I have a spot for the unusual split beard.

Yea, I meant punk = weak.

There is a website called Grass Trials that mentioned Hot Rod wasn't a robust performer and I think down here where the weather is so hot and dry it adds more challenges for some non-native grasses. Maybe in places like Michigan, it would grow better?

Down the street there's a house with Pennisetum and his look terrible this year. They were weak last year and took a long time to come around . Currently they are cut back and there is very little new growth, maybe they need to be divided or are slow to start back up? I tried P. Carly Rose when I first started growing grasses and P. Hamlyn. I decided I didn't like Carly Rose and dug those out, the 'P. Hamlyn' did good the first year and then they died out. Carly Rose was a very fast grower and robust (too robust)

You should burn or cut back any grass back that dies back in winter, otherwise they look unattractive with all of last years dead growth.

I have good luck with Panicum 'Northwind', 'Heavy Metal' and 'Dallas Blues' although 'Dallas Blues' leaves tend to scorch badly at the base when it gets hot. Its very tall but has nice pink blooms. P. Shenandoah is short, only gets about 2 ft tall but I don't get the red color at all. I had to divide the 'Northwind' plants and have moved some in spring, I noticed I had a lot of june bug grub root damage on the switch grasses. That might be your problem. I loose most of my grass clumps from june bug grubs, sometimes half or more of the clump is dead come spring. Their favorite grass is blue fescue, but seedlings usually replace the ones they destroy.

I thought punk was a pretty funny description. I call some of my plants punks at times, ha

ill be back w/pics

Ok, back. First pic is a big clump, with shoe included for scale. Large clumps are about 12” dia. Nary a purple blade. As you know, April has been below average, temp wise. Don’t know if a factor. Had a below average winter plus this area was under water and very wet from H. Harvey. I have 3-4 big ones that look exactly like this.

Here is one of the divisions which were separated and replanted last spring. Don’t look better. Have about 3-4 of the divided smaller clumps, about 6” diameter. My vision was a curvy row of purple fountain grass

Look at this little one! Makes no sense that it’s the only little clump w/a few purple blades

The bed is kidney shaped, on the other side are my pink muhly. The are evergreen for me so I don’t prune. No damage from cold or flooding. The small plant is society garlic. I have about 6-7 that you can’t see which face the street. Also undeterred by cold or rain.

Texasranger, I don’t know if you can notice, but in this pic. The plant on the left seems bluer than the Plant on the right. The “bluer” plant was planted at a later time. Also the “bluer” plant had spikes that I don’t remember seeing before. Two different plants or just my imagination? Anybody, please feel free to chime in. I just addressed Texasranger since she seems to be quite into grasses.

Another view of different colors. Don’t you think one on left is bluer?

The reason I have such pitiful shoes is b/c I’ve spent all my $$$ on plants.

The one to the left does look bluer to me too.

Haha on the shoes, my family buys me new shoes but my old holey croc knock offs are so comfortable. I have a feeling one day they'll disappear into the trash can (with help from hubby).

Your shoes look better than mine.

That bluer grass looks like Pine Muhly--- is it? Mine aren't that blue. Maybe its a sport? Its a very nice color. I get a lot of color variety on Little bluestem, some are powder blue, some kind of turquoise and some greener, but my pine muhly are all green--they came to me from wantanamara and they seed about fairly generously.

Duh--it hit me when I was out in the garden today that the purple fountain grass you are asking about is not cold hardy at all. I bypass those so it wasn't on my grass radar. I was thinking you wanted purple blooms rather than leaves. I bet it just got too cold, if you had a freeze that probably did them in.

Another nice hardy grass I wanted to suggest, if you aren't familiar with it, is Blue Grama 'Blonde Ambition', not purple but its super nice for texture, adds a lot of bright 'light' to the garden especially in late afternoon-evening sun. I checked out SRG today and was flabbergasted they no longer carry it. Its a big, thick, beefy, robust tussock forming grass, low weeping habit and almost as large as Gulf Muhly if you count the height of the hundreds of bloom stems. They need some room as they are much larger than the plain, native Blue Grama. The nice thing is the extremely long bloom period, spring to fall and it looks great all winter. Extremely drought tolerant.

I'm disappointed. I was thinking of getting a few more 'Black Hawks' Big Bluestem plants from SRG but they are sold out of all the named kinds. Rats! The leaf color on it is really nice all season, all season the leaves are deep, deep green with hints of purple that goes to red in fall and the plants are smallish with stiff vertical leaves compared to the species which is rather huge and the leaves are long. The 'turkey feet' are very airy on tall stiff stems, adds some nice interest in fall but the downside is, its not ornamental in winter.

Boy I’m gonna have to watch very closely next fall. They were ALL supposed to be pink muhly but I think I have two different plants, the blue certainly looks like pine muhly. Won’t be sure till fall.

will ck blue gramma blonde A.

I have been seeing "blonde Ambition" around in the stores.

I checked my Hot Rod yesterday. No new growth, just a short stiff stem or two from when I snipped it back a couple months ago. All the other Panicum's have been showing growth for over a month and are 8" tall or so. Maybe the June bugs got it. As small as they were, it would be a snack rather than a meal.

Bossyvossy, I really like that blue Muhly, if it was a mistake, it was a good one.

Pardon my ignorance but I must express my concern. A lot of people around me Plant pampas grass in their gardens. It gets out of control and they end up hiring the guy to come remove it b/c such a bear to remove,

i think the blonde ambition would be a good sub for purple FG but can you address its behavior. I read is was a prolific self-seeder

Mine seeds about as much as the Pine Muhly, I call those "free plants" and tend to use a lot of volunteers. Neither of these volunteer all that many new plants and I've got quite a few mature specimens of both kinds of grasses. If you don't want the volunteers, they pull up real easy. Blonde Ambition also forms little baby grass 'plants' on the tips of some of the stems (like an airplane plant does) in late summer that will root if they make soil contact---more free plants if you need them or you can just cut them off when doing the spring grass trimming. I've never seen the species type of blue grama do that.

I always keep in mind the source as to who is calling something a prolific self seeder. For some people, that means it seeds about some or produces some volunteers just around the plant. Those are usually people with very planned and artificial looking gardens filled with sterile hybrids, the kind of gardens butterflies don't have much use for and they panic at the sight of seedlings using words like "prolific self-seeder". I've read some truly eyeball rolling stories about plants that dared to re-seed on the Perennials Forum along with questions like "How do I get rid of these weeds?" showing pictures of gardens with the typical amount of typical spring weeds that tend to crop up in any garden that real gardeners simply pull because they know its simply part of the spring season.

I have a lot filled entirely with a prairie garden and a lot of space to fill so reseeding is welcome, otherwise I'd of been up a creek long ago trying to establish it. Mother Nature seems to sort things out and keep a balance for me; I don't have all that much weeding to do except for tree seedlings in spring. I now do what some people call reductionist gardening. My weeds are 'pretty' native grasses and wildflowers and worthy of potting up.

A gorgeous grass that does self-seed prolifically is Purple Three-Awn-it looks fantastic in drifts and sways in the wind very gracefully. I have it on my hell strip out front. Its as soft and pretty as Mexican Feather Grass but has purple blooms instead of white.

I’m leaning more and more towards g. Blonde Ambition. I’m checking Nursery tomorrow, ran out of time to ck on that and skullcap

The 'Blonde Ambition' we found at a local Garland nursery was sourced from HCG. Seem to recall it was a selection of their plant person/founder.

I went to a nursery that had little bluestem standing ovation. It says it turns reddish in fall. Familiar with that one?

'Blue Heaven' is the most colorful of the Little Bluestem's, blooms early and colors up early, goes from a kind of turquoise with hints of red in summer to red. It was voted #1 favorite at the Grass Trials. I get lots of seedlings that are true to the parent. It doesn't tend to lodge like some varieties.

Sadly I ordered several 'Standing Ovation' in spring year before last and they didn't make it. I'm not sure what the problem was.

Photo from 'Grasstalk' website showing 'Blue Heaven' with 'Blonde Ambition'. I love combining this kind of contrast of color and texture with grasses.

Adore it. Might just copy that. I think I have enough room.

Just placed my order for 2 blonde ambition from HCG. $5 shipping regardless of order, thru today. Hurry!

Bostedo: I'm a DFW gardener, too. Would you mind sharing which local nursery you found the 'Blonde Ambition'? Many thanks.

Lindon, I bought it at Rohde's two or three years ago. However, I've not been by there since late last summer and their website is looking like they may have since ended their retail plant sales - hope I'm reading it wrong. I'd call before heading over there.

Lindon, If you want to order it online , one can get it from High County Gardens. If you can find it locally, it will be cheaper.

Bossyvossy, Thanks for the tip on the $5 HCG shipping promotion. All three of their plants on my "watch list" happened to be on-sale and in-stock.... so, I took it as a sign. Trick will be keeping them alive until the masons are done and we re-hab the foundation beds.

Bostedo, thank you. I was hoping you wouldn't say Rohde's. I tried stopping by this March, only to find, as you did, that they have ended retail plant sales. So sad, as they had the best selection of natives in DFW!

Lindon, Sad to see your confirmation on Rohde's. I was spoiled not just by their great native selection, but that so much of it was made available in 4" pots.

I've more recently seen 'Blonde Ambition' somewhere else locally. Possibly North Haven Gardens and noticed they do include it among five of their favorite ornamental grasses in a blog post. Might be worth checking since their customers are likely asking for it now.

Here is one of 5 Standing Ovation.

Finally got my Blonde Ambition from HCG, and I’m a little miffed. They’re so proud of their 5” containers. But the fact it you get a plant still in its growing cell but packed w/soil 5 min. prior to shipping, that doesnt make for a “stout” plant. No wonder I’ve never been able to keep any of their plants alive. I swear that if these die, I will never support this seller again.

I’ve been meaning to post my row of leymus arenarius. It is so blue! The runners are runners indeed so remains to be seen how much I want to work w/this plant.

Blue foliage doesn’t like humid climates so naturally, those are the ones I covet.

I am sorry to hear about that. I would return them and call them on their bad performance. HCG was sold and I am not that pleased with the new owners, American Meadows. The selection has dwindled away from the very nice natives and the plants size and vigor have dwindled too. . I see very nice gallon plants of blond ambition being offered at the natural gardener in Austin.. It is a shame about your plants.

I know friend that gave up on the Leymus grass due to thuggish qualities but I do love its color..

Hi Mara. It is thuggish. Im still loving it more than hating it but that’s probably gonna change. If I pick runners after a rainy day, it’s not bad, but it’s just another chore and I don’t need to add any more.

if anybody is interested, I KNOW I’ll have stolons to share.

Have you considered a plant that is not a grass, such as alternanthera "Purple Knight"? The color would suit, and the leaf shape and plant height (shorter than muhly) would complement the muhly. A ruffled purple basil also comes to mind. Just a thought.

bossy--- that's disappointing. If its any consolation, they grow very fast so if it was me, I'd keep them (but feel jipped). I dug up some very small seedlings last year in late spring and by summer's end they were good sized, blooming plants. This year they started as gallon sized plants meaning they would fill the whole top of a gallon pot and the roots would be splitting it, not as big as the tussocks eventually get (about 3 gallon size) which is surprisingly big for a 'skeeter grass' (compared to the ordinary local type).

I've had bad luck with a lot of plants I ordered from HCG. They looked fine, good sized and well rooted when I got them but for some reason, they don't seem to like me. One of the best grasses I have came from them---'Thin Man' Indian Grass. I notice they no longer carry it. I love this grass because its so vertical and stiff unlike other named types I've tried. Its an 'exclamation' mark at the end of my hell strip by the driveway.

Leymus gets burnt and ratty looking here in Oklahoma when it gets hot and dry unless its planted in good garden soil like I've seen in professional situations where they water regularly. I finally gave mine to the neighbor because I figured I'd end up regretting planting it. Currently its pretty and its spreading slowly so far in unimproved soil in their backyard.

Just a note since it came up in this thread. That puny 'Hot Rod' Panicum grass that didn't grow hardly at all last season looks like it croaked over winter. What a wimpy grass and waste of money. I do not recommend it.

@juneroses: this bed is very dry but I will look for Purple King for another location.

i called hcg and left message, still waiting

the leymus is in improved, irrigated soil. Like I said, still in the love stage but that can change.