Red Fountain Grass Question

Do you have red fountain grass? Mine has not come up yet and I am afraid it died. My DS says it may be to early. Does anyone know?

When I read about your red fountain grass, I remembered the ones that I grew with great success in zone 5: some kind of calamagrostis or miscanthus of some sort; I forget. One of these tall grasses was indeed red and offered a nice contrast and focal point against the snow during winter. We need something like that during winter in zone 5.

I researched red fountain grass (pennisetum cetaseum). If we are talking about the same plant, it turns out it is a zone 9 annual grass. If that's the grass you had, I wouldn't wait for it. I hope it is not the case and your red fountain grass returns.

Best of luck with that.
Sylvain.

What I call red fountain grass--and I'm sorry, I don't know the scientific name at the moment--is, indeed, an annual. Which is quite a bummer because its quite pretty!

Smokey, red fountain grass is treated as an annual in zone 8a so it probably will not return in your zone. I just buy it each year at Walmarts for around $3. If you like grasses this is a great alternative for red fountain grass and is a perennial in your area. It is Texas Muhly grass. Has beautiful hot pink flumes (?sp) in august. I was first introduced to this grass at Riverbank Botanical gardens in Columbia. Check it out.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/search.php?q=Muhly+grass&Search=Search+PlantFiles

Smokey, I planted the red fountain grass last year too, and was told to treat it as an annual (we're zone 8a) but it MIGHT surprise me and come back. It hasn't yet, but I'm going to give it some more time, because I liked it too!

I planted aroun 25 on my lot they were dicounted at lowes for 25 cents ,every one came up and the show was outstanding, yes they are an anual in zone 8,but read some where dont cut them down till it turns warm and you might have some sedlings LOL Hightider

I bought my grass at Walmart and the container said 'Perennial'. That makes me so mad. I just loved them. Thanks BSD, I looked at some of the grasses and now I don't know which one to pick. I will have to go back and look some more. Thanks for your help everyone. Smokey

I'm just being ornery here but I wonder why they call it Texas Muhly grass in PF. It is a native species all over the southeast. We could just as well call it Carolina Muhly grass.

This message was edited Apr 17, 2009 12:04 PM

I agree Ardesia. From this day forward we will call it Carolina Muhly. They have no right to name it Texas or Mexican Muhly. If it grows here, by George it is going to be Carolina Muhly. I even like the sound of Ardesia Muhly. What says you ?

LOL, no thanks, I was just fussing. But it does irk me somewhat as PF is now generally the first reference that comes up if you google a plant.

That is really beautiful. I would love to have that. Where did you buy it?

They are available pretty much all over but it may be too early in your neck of the woods. I pruned mine back around new years and they are just now starting to come back out.

One of those pictured came from Plant Delights and was supposed to be a fancy hybrid but I couldn't tell you which one it was, they all look alike to me and the others are from a local nursery. I have some native ones in the back yard but they do not get any sun and do not bloom as pretty. One of these days I'll move some to a sunnier spot and see what they do.

I am going to start looking for it.