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weedwacking disaster

lovetogarden
18 years ago

The lawn guy accidently weedwacked my 2 year old miscanthus gracimillus along with a border of perennials. He had young kids working for them who didn't know anything about plants. Unfortunately, I wasn't home at the time to stop the damage. The Miscanthus was about a foot tall already. I think the plant will survive but will it grow as beautifully as it did last year? Will this affect the flowering this year? Last fall it was spectacular.

Also, I noticed that all the growth on the plant seems to be on the outside and the inside appears dead. Does Miscanthus die out in the center? Should I used this disaster as an opportunity to divide the plant up and get rid of the dead plant material? Thanks for any info.

Comments (3)

  • blackie57
    18 years ago

    Miscanthus do eventually die out in the center, but at 2 years I don't think it needs dividing as yet. If you want to, by all means go for it. It will definately be easier to divide now than 5 years down the road ! ;) But they do grow by gradually expanding in a ring around the old growth.

    Your foliage might be stunted some this year, but i don't believe it will harm the "fall plumage" as I jokenly call it. Grasses are tough bugers and always seem to bounce back. Next year, you won't know anything happened.

    Blackie

  • jake
    18 years ago

    I agree w/ B57 on the tough statement and the dieing centers. One thing that I have noticed is the centers of grasses generally are the last to show growth.

    You might also experience some unattractive or dismal fall display of inflorescence due to the weed whacking but next year should be back to normal unless you split the grasses.

    My ideas on this are the centers do not "heat up" in the spring until the grass has been trimmed back. The sun and warm temps heat up the edges but the centers take a little longer to thaw out.

    (tongue in cheek here) your weed whacking dilemma reads like a law suit in the making. Mental anguish, loss of person property, personal damage to ones body as you work the landscape to bring it back to its "before damage" quality.

    Jake

  • noki
    18 years ago

    yes, Miscanthus and especially "gracimillus" are tough. i suppose you could cut the plant evenly and see if it grows back up enough to flower, it will try to grow back this year. the beautiful shape of the plant will be lost this year thou,

    Miscanthus grows like a city... the thicker and newer parts are in the suburbs, each year spreading out a little more, while the city falls to urban blight eventually. two years even if bought at a 5 gallon size still sounds pretty young, with some prime years ahead

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