So glad to find this site. Early this spring, early April just after that last little freeze, I put a couple two-foot high cortaderias from Home Depot in the ground and they have been growing encouragingly, now twice as thick and tall. Also, I started a bunch of seeds in the house back in Feb because nursery plants are so expensive. Amazingly, I now have about fifty babies from two to seven inches high, some in clumps and some single stalks. They've been outside hardening for about three months. I'm wondering if I should put my babies in the ground this year or wait until they get MUCH BIGGER, like the ones I bought. Maybe I'm wasting my time on some silly romantic plants? I love big ornamental grasses, so I will follow the link listed above. :)

I cut mine back in late winter, every year. It's stumpy and looks kinda bad for a while, but eventually fills out with lots of new growth. I only had 4 plumes on my plant the first time it bloomed, but this year was amazing. I just don't like the way this particular grass looks when it matures, if it isn't kept trimmed....all of the old dead brown bits give it a ratty appearance. So my personal preference is to chop it down every year. Pampas grass is almost indestructable in our zone. I couldn't advise you as to how much to trim yours back in zone 6. I cut mine back to approx. 8-10 inches from the ground in late February, early March. It's full again by June. I suppose whether or not you cut it back, depends on how much room you are willing to give it to spread out. And it WILL spread out. If it isn't cut back, it eventually becomes a monster of a thing, which will require a chain saw or machete for "trimming" at that point. I'm not kidding. Just ask anyone who has experienced hacking through the jungles of mature clumps of Pampas grass...they'll have horror stories for ya, and likely the scars to prove it, as well. Those razor-sharp leaf-blades can do serious damage to any exposed skin. And once a clump gets that large, it's nearly impossible to get rid of, should you decide you don't like it. My brother had to burn his Pampas grass to get rid of it.....fire got out of hand and the fire department had to be called to come put it out!!! It's funny now, but wasn't at the time. His overgrown Pampas grass almost burned down the neighborhood. Renee

There is no overlap between real Pampas Grass (Cortaderia) and Fountain Grass (Pennisetum). The smallest Pampas Grass is much larger and has much larger flowers than the largest Fountain Grass. The best way to learn to ID the larger grasses from a drive-by is to study Google Images. A few to look up would be Cortaderia selloana, Miscanthus sinensis, Panicum virgatum, Saccharum ravennae, Arundo donax and Sporobolus wrightii. Get to know things like their foliage height, flowering height and time of flowering. This will help you to name what you see while driving by.

Hi lycopus, I sent off 5 gathered samples from the local area to Dr. Xiao Chen. She then sent them out from her lab as a favor to get better pricing. I e-mailed her to ask her for the name of her lab but right now all I have are my notes of what she told me over the phone which she watered down to enable me to better understand what I had here. All I got out of our conversation is that it wasn't native. I thought her price was really great considering there were 5 samples but I sure do wish I would have known Cornell was doing this for free. I have sent samples of ringworm to Cornell before to be cultured but was always charged $100 a pop. I have never dealt with them for anything that wasn't animal related but free is free. They did a great job getting fungus to colonize for identification. I would feel very comfortable dealing with Cornell. Wanna have a good laugh... I have a Swift biological here that I am having difficulty using. My girlfriend tried to explain to me how to look at the phragmites under the microscope but I couldn't even get it focused. You are welcome to borrow it to play as nobody over here has the ability to use it properly and you probably do. Sad, huh? I definitely have/had muskrats here. I think the coyotes must be getting a few here and there as I don't see any of their telltale little huts. Funny, I never noticed they were missing until today. I went out early this evening while there was still light and looked at more cattails than I care to admit having looked at. I found a stand over by a neighbor that had all split segments which would be indicative of Typha angustifolia you gave me the name of. I looked at photographs on the Internet and it is distinctly double segmented. The cattails I have did not all appear to have the double segments but then I can't really tell as they are weathered and poofed out from having withstood winter winds. The problem is that they are windswept. I distinctly remember having seen the double segmented type here last fall as I recall having thought it was odd that cattails had two cattails while others had only one. I might have a mix here. Looks like I will want to know your source for broadleaf cattail to start getting some going over here in the year 2010... right after I get a blow torch and burn the narrowleaf down. As far as whether the DNR guy will get it right or not... I will send you that information via the GardenWeb mail. Relax... tee he! Easy for you to say! Every time I turn around over here somebody discovers something else. You have experience in dealing with all this crap and knowing how to prioritize. I am still struggling with trying to figure out what ickie goes first and how it goes. Just when I think my ducks are in a line- up pops another nasty. Last month it was crack willow or its hybrid. Last week it was Bittersweet Nights and gypsy moth egg sacs. This week it was narrowleaf cattail. Ickies and nasties, nasties and ickies. Below is a photograph of about 5% of our buckthorn battlefield. Those are only the tops of the buckthorn laying in the ground and the entire yard (I do mean our entire yard) is coated with buckthorn bodies. We have taken out a few hundred to date. There are many hundreds more to go. We did finally determine we were going to have to redirect our energy to the fruiting female buckthorns in order to get a chance to focus on planting the bare root trees and shrubs and all of the other plant materials that will start being delivered here by the hundreds within about 4 weeks. By the way, many plants I ordered were your suggestions. Also too, you told me to go for the buckthorn first and that is exactly what we are doing. We let it lay on the ground to dry a little and then we burn it. The garlic mustard is emerging so I bought 12 stamp licker bottles from Office Depot and I have been going after that. Larger areas of GM will go under plastic to smother and kill it so I can avoid using chemicals. The PL, the RCG, and the phragmites are being contracted out. Let somebody who knows how to deal with wetlands get those. After we get the new plant material in the ground, we'll start in on the JH and Rosa multiflora and then go back to the buckthorn again. Next year, we will repeat the process. It may not be much of a game plan but at least we are moving forward. My biggest problem is feeling so unclean and filthy dirty over here. I feel as if our house was built on top of a toxic waste dump that plant mutations are growing out of. I want it all gone yesterday and I have been slow to arrive at the conclusion this isn't going to happen. Patience has never been one of my virtues. You flow with things much better than me. I had days where I wanted to take a bulldozer to this entire place and then I remember the trillium that poked up last year, the monarda, the sedges, the hickories, the oaks, and those black cherries intermixed in this mess trying to survive and I think only a few more years... lycopus, your information is always a Godsend! You are probably the main reason I didn't have a bulldozer hauled over here as you make it all seem doable. It is.