Subscriber Comments for
Masses o' Grasses

Comments in order of when they were received | (reverse order)

KEVINSB	2010-08-01 12:22 AM
While lawn alternatives are wonderful ways to add beauty and avoid the waste of scarce drinking water, may I suggest people investigate UC Verde buffalograss? It is a form of American prariegrass that forms a nice soft turf. UC Davis created the version that is planted with plugs and which is ideal for coastal California. It requires 1/15 the water of the ubiquitous Marathon turf. It cab be mowed once a month or not at all and looks terrific. Google it!
COMMENT 94571	2010-08-01 08:10 AM
Thanks for the including S. tenuissima on the invasive alert list; it is one of the true painted ladies of the plant world. Also look at paspalum ssp. for turf. Tolerates brackish water(reclaimed) better than any other but not as much of a camel as buffalo grass but softer.
COMMENT 94615	2010-08-01 12:02 PM
Can you do a story on grasses that are native to California - that have ornamental value? As a landscape architect in Davis, I am interested in all things native - and grasses brought to early California for forage displaced many of our native grasses. Rather than approach this problem from the point of view of a list of what not to use - we could approach it from what we should use. Thanks, Paul Deering
COMMENT 94637P	2010-08-01 02:00 PM
...are the captioned plant names on the invasive grasses reversed? Top one looks like the Mexcian Feather Grass (it used to be sold as Stipa tenuissima) and the latter like Fountain Grass. It reseeds voraciously if not faithfully dead-headed.Thankfully, it has not spread outwards from my garden, but I'm still pulling Stipa seedlings out of my front bed since first removing it 15 years ago. The same can be said of many popular xeritropic plants from the 80's--Geranium incanum, Santa Barabra Daisy, Verbena bonariense, Carex tumulicola...part of their inner wiring for survival in extreme drought.
COMMENT 94639P	2010-08-01 02:17 PM
Paul, There is very little selection of native grasses in SB. Purple needle grass is one. It's the state grass. http://www.moremesa.org/ I could see an entire landscape fashioned of the plant shown on the more Mesa site.
COMMENT 94660	2010-08-01 03:45 PM
Does anyone have any comments on five foot Nicotania Plant with drooping white trumpet shaped flowers? Large leafed. What area of the US is this common to? I have a plant growing in my yard. The leaves are large oval and sticky.
COMMENT 94875	2010-08-02 10:43 AM
Any nice grasses that do well in more shaded environments? I love sedge-like grasses, especially.
BILLY GOODNICK	2010-08-02 11:16 AM
Hey, fans: Sorry to have posted a few errors. It's not a great excuse, but I had 5 writing projects going simultaneously and was a bit cavalier in my fact checking. For starters, two photos were switched (thanks for the commenter for catching it). The two bad-guy photos are flip-flopped: the first should be Pennisetum and the second Nassella. As for the Miscanthus grass I showed at Alice might not be 'Morning light'. Randy Baldwin general manager of San Marcos Growers (only the most bitchenest wholesale nursery in the known universe) e-mailed me: "Could be wrong but the image of the plant you are calling Miscanthus 'Morning Light' looks to be M. sinensis 'Variegatus' - leaves appear too broad for 'Morning Light'." Thanks, Randy. He also said that M. 'Cosmopolitan' and 'Cabaret' don't go completely dormant and turn brown, so you don't HAVE to cut them back. But I like refreshing them in the spring anyway and getting all new growth. You have the option. As for other native grasses, another go-to I use is Muhlenbergia rigens (deer grass). There are some nice ones in the planting strip in the middle of Calle Real west of Patterson, in front of Maravilla retirement community. And for the comment about buffalo grass, I agree about it's water-thriftiness, but this article was more about ornamental grasses and when used as a turf grass, buffalo doesn't fall in my definition of "ornamental." It's still a boring patch of turf with no diversity, though it could be integrated into a meadow quite nicely. One more thang - how come so many of you don't cough up some spare change and pay for a subscription to Edhat. I'm working my heart out for ya - get up off the chump-change, folks!
GREENTOO	2010-08-10 04:22 PM
Billy, Of course, Randy is right. The Miscanthus you pictured is M. variegatus, (I planted it), the M. 'Morning Light' is in that same area but nearer to Garden Street. The more erect, green Miscanthus in the picture is one of many seedlings from M. variegatus which developed on cross polination with M. 'Morning Light', which is reportedly self sterile. Miscanthus variegatus is striking but floppy in maturity and benefits from being cut back in mid spring.

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