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ficus_spider_man

tell me everything about pocupine grass

ficus-spider-man
16 years ago

I got a cump of this beautiful grass from highland nurshery for $30.00 and planted by our garage, where I had a buckthorn stump grinded out, Its by some purple parie clover to the left and some purple coneflower to the right. I have grass clippings mixed in with the soil and have tried to dig as deep a hole as possible it kind of has a mound of soil coming up around it but i;'m sure as roots establish it should look great. I gave it lots of water and already love its exotic looks.

I understand this grass is aggressive and grows large? How large does it get ( pamplet said eight feet high) and what soil does it like the best, does it like watered soil over dry?.

Comments (5)

  • donn_
    16 years ago

    Porcupine Grass, AKA Miscanthus sinensis 'Strictus.' It's a clumping warm season grass which, in ideal circumstances, will hit 6'+ in foliage height, and another 1-2' in height to the plumes, which should appear in September. It will become a large grass in a few years, so I hope you planted it at least 3' from your garage. It likes moist fertile soil, and full sun. It can tolerate dry conditions after it's gotten itself established.

    It needs to be cut back to ~6" from the crown every spring, just after the new growth starts showing. The winter foliage and plumes add great interest to your garden, so leave them up all winter. This grass will withstand heavy snowfall and winter winds and continue to look great.

  • ficus-spider-man
    Original Author
    16 years ago

    I did plant it close to the garage, Did you mean theree inches or three feet?

    I have a shovel I could use to hack it in two to devide later on if it gets too agressive, right now I would never do such a thing as its so beautiful; and only just getting established, I showed one of my neighbors the grass, she loves it. I planted this grass away from my next door neighbors agasining garage and I told him I would plant a small grass that gets under three feet or so.( he said I could use some of his property to create a nice wildflower garden) Its by the alley along the white garage wall on our property , it looks great.

  • grass_guy
    16 years ago

    I read the word aggressive twice in this post and wanted to be sure it was stated that Miscanthus Strictus is not aggressive, it is a very defined sized clump forming grass. It concerns me when plants are called aggressive simply because they are grasses. Grasses can seem aggressive when purchased as a 2 ft tall 3 gallon pot and it grows into the 7 ft clump it was destined to be.

    Miscanthus Strictus (Porcupine grass) will grow between 5 and 9 feet (I've seen it in all these ranges as a mature grass), depending on conditions. Like most perennials, it will die out in the center and not perform as well after some years, hence the possibility of future division.

    When spacing grasses, look at the mature size...it will reach it within 2 to 3 years, so don't plant according to the pot it came in, but according to tag (or research). As a general rule of thumb, whatever the mature height, give it at least half that in planting space. So an 8 ft grass would need 4 ft of space minimum, more if you want it to appear as a specimen planting.

    Its a nice miscanthus...enjoy it!

  • leslie197
    16 years ago

    My Strictus was planted from a flimsy thin quart pot from a local nursery in 2003. It is now a perfect circle more than 3 feet wide. It was pocket planted in heavy clay soil that generally stays moist (but turns into concrete when it really dries out) & in full sun. It stays very erect, but does not always plume for me in my short season. The clump is also extremely dense. There is no way that I (me personally) could ever dig up or divide this grass. It also grew large quite quickly and IMO you should move the grass NOW if you did not plant it far enough away from the garage. It was only in the last year or so that it did not double itself in diameter.

  • leslie197
    16 years ago

    and the TOP of my Strictus is a full 5 feet wide and the base is 33 inches with a height of 5 feet in June of its 4th year.

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