Grasses

This post is a bit out of the character of what I imagined for this blog, but we do have non-food plants on the farm and so today I will talk about some of them. Last weekend, we planted some ornamental grasses beside the back porch. Don't ask me why, but this seemed easier than putting up fresh lattice.

We planted two small purple fountain grass plants. Pennisetum setaceum rubrum. It needs six hours of sun, blooms in the summer, grows to be four feet wide and four feet tall. It is hardy only to zone 9, so we'll have to mulch it well in the fall. It should be fertilized in the spring and summer and must be cut back to the ground every spring.

We also planted to large green and white grasses. Miscanthus sinensis cosmopolitan. It needs six hours of sun, blooms in the late summer and fall, grows to be 5-8 feet tall and 4-6 feet wide. It is hardy to zone six. It should be fertilized in spring and summer and should be cut back in late winter.

We planted one other grass that I can't find the ticket for and a butterfly bush(I also have a butterfly bush in the herb garden out front. I will blog about it another time). I can't find the ticket for the butterfly bush either, so I am not sure which cultivar I have, but they all seem to require similar care. The butterfly bush is winter hardy here (hardy to zone 5). It is invasive in the pacific nothwest, but shouldn't be here in NC. It should be deadheaded to encourage new blooms. It should be cut back in early spring, as flowers only develop on new growth.