[ Lost in the Landscape ]

out with the old

This will be the year that I finally win the bat­tle against Mex­i­can feath­er­grass, the blog­ger said opti­misti­cally. I doubt that I’ll be see­ing the end of this beau­ti­ful but wildly over­pro­lific grass any time soon, but I’ve com­pleted pulling all the par­ent plants in the gar­den. With the source of seeds removed, the hun­dreds of unwanted seedlings that I have to pull up every year should diminish.

So how bad was the feath­er­grass prob­lem? Here’s a shot under­neath a black sage in the back yard, no closer than seventy-five feet from the near­est adult feath­er­grass plant capa­ble of set­ting seed. The seed just blew down­wind and set up house­hold in the shel­tered ger­mi­nat­ing con­di­tions in the shade of the sage. Other areas of the gar­den will look like this when the rains begin again and all the banked seed begins to ger­mi­nate. I hate to think that these might get to the local urban canyon, four houses away.

My rela­tion­ship with Mex­i­can feath­er­grass (Nas­sella tenuis­sima or Stipa tenuis­sima) started off in the early 1990s. Like most peo­ple who’ve planted it, I saw it at the nurs­ery with its stalks weav­ing del­i­cately in its beguil­ing come-hither way and fell in love. I bought two.

At first things between us went well. The grasses spread a bit, but the thought of free plants were a real bonus. I even gave plants away.

Though pro­lific, the plant isn’t cur­rently listed as an inva­sive species on the mas­ter Cal-IPA inven­tory, but appears on a 2007 list of nom­i­nated species. It’s clear from some of the com­ments on a Fresh Dirt post­ing that it’s a grow­ing prob­lem in some areas, my neigh­bor­hood included.

Yes, the stuff is gor­geous. But too high main­te­nance and poten­tially prob­lem­atic in my area. It’s time for us to part ways.

So how will I get my fix for del­i­cate, feath­ery grasses? This year has been my first time grow­ing the native Aris­tida pur­purea, pur­ple three-awn, a species that’s found locally. The plant is shorter than the com­mon feath­er­grass, which might be a bonus, depend­ing on your gar­den sit­u­a­tion. And unlike the nas­sella it has a decid­edly pur­ple color to it while it’s growing–very nice. I’ll post pho­tos once my plants get a lit­tle big­ger. I have no idea if it’ll be the same issue of the plant vol­un­teer­ing all over the gar­den, though I doubt it. Even if it escapes to the wilds, it’ll be in the com­pany of oth­ers of its species. Not a prob­lem.

November 22 2009 | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: invasive plants • Mexican feather grass • Mexican feathergrass • Nassella tenuissima • Stipa tenuissima • weeds | 8 Comments »

two plants talking

Here’s a pic­ture from the week­end of a cou­ple of plants inter­act­ing aes­thet­i­cally, a dark rose clone of naked lady, Amaryl­lis bel­ladonna, with Mex­i­can feath­er­grass, Nas­sella tenuis­sima (bet­ter known as Stipa tenuis­sima). I par­tic­u­larly liked the lines on the petals of the lilies echo­ing the wispy lines described by the stems of grass…

Dark amaryl­lis

August 21 2008 | Categories: my garden • plant profiles | Tags: Amaryllis belladonna • Mexican feather grass • Mexican feathergrass • naked ladies • Nassella tenuissima • plant combinations • Stipa tenuissima | No Comments »