This is what each plant looked like last August. We live in Rogers, AR (the very NW corner)

I'd say winter killed your Pampas Grass. You are in hardiness zone 6b, and most Pampas Grass is limited to zone 8 and warmer.

hello. I am new to this grass also but I don't think your grass is dead. It will come back, that is just what they look like at winters end. I didn't know these grasses were only good to zone 8. I am in zone 7 and I see these grasses everywhere here in my area.

My pampas grasses are just starting to fill in - open up those clumps and see if there are any green stalks growing from within.

I agree with river city, clear away all that dead stuff and let the new growth see some sun shine !!

gardengal48......that is what pampas grass looks like at the end of winter here in my area of nc..........most everyone has one in their yard and they are all brown and dead looking until spring.....some people burn them and some people cut them.

kimwary1............can you give us all an update on your grasses. have they started to grow?

This is what pampas grass should look like in winter:

See the green blades? Not brown and dead looking. Brown and dead looking for an evergreen grass typically means dead :-)) It is possible we are discussing two different grasses......there is a so-called "hardy" pampas grass - Erianthus ravennae (sometimes Saccharum ravennae) that is not true pampas grass and is fully herbaceous so would look brown and dead in winter. True pampas grass - Cortaderia selloana - will keep its green blades over winter in areas where it is fully hardy like any other evergreen grasses.

That's a beautiful picture, I wish I could grow pampas grass....
But I can't. I had a few clumps of pumila for the last three years but they struggled through winter and even though they looked great by fall -no plumes. Each spring I would have to deal with looking at the dead straw pile with the razor edges to each leaf and then cut myself up removing it.
I'd also say cut it back more and cross your fingers, they are slow to rise from the dead...... But last winter was awfully harsh and maybe it was just too much for them.

Gardengal - sorry, will have to correct you. I've grown the supposedly hardier 'Pumila' since the late 1980s, but this also applies to the more common strains north of about Virginia Beach, VA. It is quite common for the tops to appear semi-dead at the end of even a normal winter. You just cut them back - takes serious tools, obviously - and they resprout with great vigor. I use the fearsome brush blade on my Stihl string trimmer. Even with that, it's quite an ordeal. Now, some plants truly can't tolerate such a regime year over year...even a plain green Phormium is very borderline here, and if it has to completely regenerate every spring will probably go into a death spiral. (though both of mine are growing after this horrid winter) But the pampas grass? It laughs off such setbacks, at least in a place with hot summers. My plant went from a tiny mail order liner about 1 ft. high, to a behemoth, in only 3-4 years.

Now, this winter the top looked REALLY dead. No green anywhere. But my plant had gotten huge, even for a pumila, the base is 30" X 30" when cut. Sure enough, it is resprouting, albeit in a more patchy manner, and later, than usual. In fact part of the reason I visited this forum, which I seldom do, was to look for a thread just like this. Because now that mine is mostly growing from the outer edges of the core, I want to know if it would be ok to cut back about 2/3 of "the ring", and cover with black plastic. I just want to "start over" with a much smaller pampas grass...w/o replanting. It would take a backhoe to get the root mass out now. I think it will be ok, but want to be sure having that core mostly rot away under plastic won't hurt the 30 or so blades I leave standing.

BTW, to the OP Kim:
"I cut them down"

that probably was the kiss of death. As a general rule, one NEVER cuts the top of a tender plant before winter. In fact you really want to wait until you see signs of life in spring, then cut away the dead parts. In every conceivable way the tops act to protect the living parts in the soil. Sorry. If you don't see new growth in a place as warm in spring as AR by now, they are dead. Mine were noticeably returning by the end of May, which was much later than normal given the cold winter and cold, wet spring we had.

"kato_b z6 NEPa"

Just too far north. I am aware of successful plants in gardens in southern NJ, extreme SE PA (parts that are zn 7 like Swarthmore), and the western suburbs of Baltimore. Those areas probably are the limit, perhaps extending to the most sheltered gardens on LI. Summers on Cape Cod? Can't imagine they'd be warm or long enough. One reason it probably does well in the PNW is the long, sunny days of summer. Even if they are cool. (the Pampa, btw, is quite dry...which is why Cortaderia is able to be a terrible weed in parts of California)

Granted, I admit I probably would have lost mine completely if it hadn't been for the very reliable snow cover. I got super lucky in some sense this winter. But this winter was extraordinary. 'Pumila' is fine down to the single digits if the plant is established and the winter isn't too long and severe as this one was...Great Lakes haven't been so frozen since the 1960s.

This post was edited by davidrt28 on Thu, Jun 19, 14 at 17:49

Gardengal...is the related "toetoe" (love the name) from NZ, common in PNW landscapes? I notice it is now called Austroderia. I've thought of trying one, just to be crazy. I think Digging Dog sometimes has them, under the old name.

I think we now need to hear from kimwari1..............did your pampas ever come back??????????

These forums get a lot of drive-by posters...they post one question, get a couple answers, and are gone. She seems to have registered to ask the question.

Any updates? Mine looked almost as bad end of May, but now there's green emerging from the sides. I guess they died back to the ground this winter. Strange thing is, I have another pampas in full shade, sheltered by surrounding plants that is doing quite well.

This post was edited by river_city on Mon, Jun 30, 14 at 18:34

river city,,...I will tell you, here in Louisburg nc people with these grasses were also very late in growing this year. and yes, the green is all coming from the sides. I planted 7 and only 4 survived.....we had a tough winter for them I guess.

Re: the toe toe. No, not common and I wouldn't expect it to be. Considered an invasive risk 9 plant by APHIS, although a great many plants native to the southern hemisphere and Australia/New Zealand in particular are not considered reliably winter hardy in this climate, only borderline at best. And that includes phormiums, most eucalypts, hebe, acacia, grevillea, pittosporum, coprosma, drimys, dianella, etc. They may live 3 out of 5 winters but that 4th or 5th will be the end of them. The exceptions are the hair sedges and the wind grass (anemanthele), which are very hardy, sometimes to the point of weediness.

I thought mine was dead too . Looks like yours. Leave it alone I think it will come back. I have new shoots coming in and I pulled the dry ones out. I think there is still hope. Good luck!

While an old pampas grass thread has been bumped, I'll note that the deep pink pampas grass offered last year by PDN, died this winter for me. 'Amber Waves'. Had grown quite well during the summer and sized up nicely. But it seemed to perish quickly, in spite of it not being a very cold winter by our standards. Almost looked more like an annual grass! Of course it was listed "zone 7b, at least"...which I've come to read as "at least in central North Carolina on sandy soil". haha.

I live in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire, what zone is this please? I moved here from Manchester last May & have no idea what you mean??? My pampas grass is on the same dead mode . Thanks

That would appear to be the equivalent of a USDA zone 9...maybe even a 9b. True pampas grass should be fully hardy in your zone and with no die back or browning of the tips, much as it appears in mine. But I understand you have experienced a very wet winter....the wettest in many years. Poor drainage, any standing water or of course any flooding could have contributed to the grass's demise.

UK hardiness zones