It's quite possible that your "sick" Maiden Grass is already entering dormancy. Frequently, moving from the nursery environment to "real life" can cause warm season grasses to start to go dormant earlier than if they were already in the ground and established.

Don't fertilize them. It won't do anything but waste fertilizer. In most circumstances, they never need ferts.

If you are somewhere with guaranteed snow cover during the coldest parts of winter, I'd suggest giving the new grasses a haircut before the heavy snow flies, and then covering them with pine boughs. This will give them lots of protection from the coldest part of winter.

If you don't have guaranteed snow cover, leave the foliage, and pile on fall leaves to act as cold protection. Be sure to clean away the leaves when winter breaks.

Haircut time is usually in late winter to early spring, and you want to cut them down to 2-4" at most. Clean out any leaves and other flotsam which has been caught in the foliage/stems.

Thanks Donn,

I can accept your thought the sickly maiden grass is entering dormancy...however, I bought 3 plants and only 1 of them is sickly. The other two look great. By the way, we've been having unseasonably warm temps. Over the past month, its been about 75-80 degrees so I wonder if this postpones the dormancy???

Also, I'm assuming you are recommending a haircut for each OG variety I mentioned (maiden, morning light, dwarf hamelin)??? Also, did I read you correctly...cut the grass so that only 2-4 INCHES remain??? Wow, that's what I call a crew cut.

Please know, I live in Indianapolis, IN. and YES, we do get a fair amount of snow and winter temps often hovering around zero. Lately, Over the last 10 years, however, our winters have been quite mild with temps more often in the 20-30 range with just a week or two of REALLY cold temps. Snow has also been fairly infrequent (maybe 3-4/season) but accummulations are generally By the way, I have no idea what pine bough is. Would a hardwood mulch do the same thing??? Just pile it up on top of the crew-cut??? Thanks again for all your advise.

I'm familiar with Indy weather (born there). Quite a bit of my Mother's family lives there, The Foxworthy Clan.

Your Miscanthus varieties (Maiden Grass and 'Morning Light') should have no trouble surviving a cold zone 5 winter. 'Hameln' is a little less hardy, but still should be no problem. A pine bough is nothing more than the branch of a pine tree. When I was gardening in zone 5, I collected neighborhood Christmas trees, and cut off their branches to mulch tender plants with. Loosely pile the branches over the plant, and layer in fall leaves. It provides good insulation. Hardwood mulch is not good. It's too dense, and will hold too much moisture in near the crown of the plant.

Yes, 2-4" at most. Younger grasses can go back to 1" with no ill effects. That foliage is dead, and getting rid of it is good for the plant. The length and timing applies to all your varieties.