Both Cortaderia selloana and jubata are commonly referred to as "pampas grass" and both are freely naturalized in CA and considered invasive species. Neither is recommended for planting. And both have razor sharp blades and should be located well away from any foot traffic in those locations where the grass is NOT considered invasive.

Lol. Yes there is a lot of smog in LA, but your forgetting how huge that city is and how many cars. And to be honest there are very few palms native to Florida, even Miami which is almost in the tropics. All those coconuts etc were also brought in to Florida, how is that any different? You must not have been to california. Palms everywhere from the coast, to desert to in land valleys. The one palm that is native here is now native all over california. Believe me I know, they grow like weeds all over with no help, even through cracks in streets. As far as these pics being like anywhere in florida, I'll agree. You can't see all the z10 palms that I did,huge kings, kentias, fishtails etc. Not to mention all the other tropicals plants and trees. These pics are from far away and only in that one place at that beach, of course you can only see the most common palms, such as washy's, cidp's, queens as they are by far the most planted and grow fastest there. People often forget, Califrornia and Florida have two very different climates. And I think thats the neat thing. You get to see a mix of different plants here not just palms and tropicals. And I ahve also thought about moving to Florida but the more I compare the two the more I am not sure. @ islandbreeze- Those are actually giant birds of paradise. I found it interesting they are more common than bananas there. - US_Marine

Thanks so much parker25mv! Looks like we're both on the same page. I'm not planning on planting them in the ground, and I agree that they're too dominant in LA right now. When I was trying to find a suitable screen plant I read through all of the ficus discussion on here and decided against them. Then these fell into my lap, which opens up budget for native CA plants elsewhere so I'm trying to make lemonade. I'll leave them in the half-barrels, but I'm also open to any suggestions to make them healthier. Root pruning has been suggested above, which I'm looking into now. Thanks!

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