Purple Fountain Grass in Tennessee
 

Hi everybody!

I'm new to this group and have a quick question. I planted a nice
mound of Purple Fountain Grass last year and am wondering what the
chances are of it coming back this year. Do they last through a
Tennessee mild winter?

Right now it looks like a bundle of dried hay. I know that there is
probably no definitive answer because it all depends on planting
location and temps, so i guess my actual question is this. How soon
will I see new growth if it is going to come back this season? I don't
want to trash it if its still got life left in it.

Thanks!
kim
Zone 6

Ima Googler wrote:
Hi everybody!

I'm new to this group and have a quick question. I planted a nice
mound of Purple Fountain Grass last year and am wondering what the
chances are of it coming back this year. Do they last through a
Tennessee mild winter?

Right now it looks like a bundle of dried hay. I know that there
is probably no definitive answer because it all depends on planting
location and temps, so i guess my actual question is this. How
soon will I see new growth if it is going to come back this season?
I don't want to trash it if its still got life left in it.

Thanks!
kim
Zone 6

Google is your friend.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8b
Sunset Zone 5

Hi Kim,

It's rated hardy to zone 9, so I'd say it's a goner if you are in zone 6. It would be an annual in your zone. You may get lucky and find some of the seed heads have sprouted new plants.

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/c..._setaceum.html
http://www.denverplants.com/frnsgras...penni_purp.htm

Newt

Thanks for the reply! I hope I get lucky and find some new plants, but
I suppose I'll go ahead and clean up its mess and not expect anything.
:)

Hi Victoria,

Just thought I'd let you know that the purple fountain grass seeds that
you sent me sprouted yesterday.
After reading how invasive it is in the south, I talked with another
Master Gardener that had grown it. She grew it in a container and lost
it over winter here in zone 6-7 (they can't make up their minds on our
zone!). Guess I won't have to worry about it being invasive to my
garden...but I will have to remember to collect seeds at the end of the
season.

Thanks again,
Jenn

escape wrote:
I live in Zone 8b and mine sometimes returns, sometimes not. So, I'd say you
don't have a good chance if the soil temps were below 40 for any length of time.


On 17 Mar 2005 16:13:55 -0800, "Ima Googler" opined:


Hi everybody!

I'm new to this group and have a quick question. I planted a nice
mound of Purple Fountain Grass last year and am wondering what the
chances are of it coming back this year. Do they last through a
Tennessee mild winter?

Right now it looks like a bundle of dried hay. I know that there is
probably no definitive answer because it all depends on planting
location and temps, so i guess my actual question is this. How soon
will I see new growth if it is going to come back this season? I don't
want to trash it if its still got life left in it.

Thanks!
kim
Zone 6







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Ima, I'm posting from a forum and not usenet, so I don't know if I've cut and pasted this correctly. Hope so. Anyway, I should have stated that the seed heads would drop the seeds on the ground for new plants to sprout, but you probably already know that. Anyway, you could just cut the stalks near or to the ground for now and wait until plants in your garden begin to sprout before you dig it up and disturb the soil around it to look for new sprouts.
Newt

I've had it come up the next year in MA zone 5/6 after a moderate
winter. Not reliably enough to call it perennial here, but in TN, maybe?

Trim some of it back and see if there's some green stuff down in the
middle of the hay. I'm not familiar with TN growing seasons, but up here
it started showing green in early spring. Not the first stuff up, but
not too long after mud season.




Ima Googler wrote:
Hi everybody!

I'm new to this group and have a quick question. I planted a nice
mound of Purple Fountain Grass last year and am wondering what the
chances are of it coming back this year. Do they last through a
Tennessee mild winter?

Right now it looks like a bundle of dried hay. I know that there is
probably no definitive answer because it all depends on planting
location and temps, so i guess my actual question is this. How soon
will I see new growth if it is going to come back this season? I don't
want to trash it if its still got life left in it.

Thanks!
kim
Zone 6

escape wrote:

On Fri, 18 Mar 2005 14:34:55 GMT, Jenn Vanderslice
opined:


Hi Victoria,

Just thought I'd let you know that the purple fountain grass seeds that
you sent me sprouted yesterday.


Good, but they aren't purple fountain grass! They are Pennisetum setaceum, but
not 'Rubrum.' These are exactly like the purple, only the plumes are white and
foliage green. They reseed readily and I have a farm here of them!

Thanks again. I went back and searched the ever expanding internet again.
http://www.santarosagardens.com/brow...l-Grasses.html

I seem to have the reoccurring problem of mounds of mis-information
everywhere. Took me a long time to realize that there is a HUGE
difference between brugmansia and datura. According to many websites,
magazine articles and books....they're the same plant.
;-)


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Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing wonder and awe -
the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me. - Immanuel Kant