FireBrick said:

The homeowner doesn't speak English all the people I've asked do not know
the name of this beautiful purplish growth.
Tall, about 30" high, very dense and even deeper color in fall.

I think it's a grass, but searching the web has been unsuccessful.

here's the pic
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/w9ol/l...plegrass1.jpeg

Not a grass. It's Russian Sage (Perovskia). It really is a nice plant.
Drought tolerant with long lasting blooms. If you have an area with
well-drained soil and full sun, it will thrive there. Cut it down in
January and it will keep a nice growth through the summer.


I even went to one of the bigger surburban garden shops, and described it to
blank stares....

Find a better garden shop. That's a pretty common perennial =)


Only one home in the area has these...I'd like to be the second.

You could ask the homeowner if you could take some stem cuttings now. It
propagates fairly easily from summer cuttings. They wouldn't notice if you
were careful enough. =)

--
Eggs

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