Some varieties are better than others. My 'Prairie Fire' is perfectly upright at the moment. They typically must be grown "lean and mean" (think prairie).

P. virgatum Shenandoah has been very upright for me. A blue variety panicum (forgot the name) flopped so badly for me I couldn't stand it and removed it. I noticed this year that some of it had returned - I tripped over it since it was lying flat on the ground!

Both were planted in the same corner (triangular) bed as sentries for the path that ran through the bed. As far as I could tell the planting conditions were very similar for both of them. Full sun, heavy clay soil, on a small rise above a drainage swale, planting holes were not amended & no fertilizer (not even much mulch) was ever used on them. Shenandoah also grew much faster (crowding the path, of course) than the bluish one.

Thanks for the info and suggestions. I don't think my plants growing spot is overly rich, but maybe it is. In any case I can't do anything about that, so maybe this isn't the best plant for me - at least the one I currently have.

Kevin

I have both Shenandoah and Prairie Fire. Both stand up well for me, though PF has a more upright habit and Shenandoah has a softer more billowy look.PF colors up earlier. Northwinds is a very upright one but I've lost two of them. I later found out that the crown needs to be set a little higher than the others. My floppy mess is Sioux Blue Indian grass. Though I love the blue color I don't want to look at it laying on the ground. I"m guessing the abundant rainfall earlier this year may have contributed to the problem.

I have a P. virgatum hybrid whose habit of sprawling after heavy rains annoyed me a few years back, so I cut it back repeatedly one season with the goal of eventually removing it, something I never got around to. It's been better behaved since then.

Sometimes you've got to put the fear of God into misbehaving plants. ;)

One good way to deal with plants like this is to put 4 wooden stakes into the ground around it, roughly 12 to 18 inches tall, and then staple a round of chicken wire to the stakes and let the plant grow through that.

I have 'Heavy Metal' and it doesn't flop in summer. All of them will flop in the winter with the snow load.

I have had several cultivars of P. virgatum for 3+ years now - Shenandoah, Rostelbrach (sp?), Heavy Metal, and Cloud Nine. They are all upright for me, not a single one has ever flopped. Cloud Nine is a very tall cultivar at over 6 feet with the "cloud" of blooms, and it doesn't even flop.

The floppiest grass I ever had was Miscanthus variegata, and I couldn't stand it flopping over the surrounding perennials. Gave it away.

I started with 2 Heavy Metal. They flop in rain but then pop up. My problem with them is they are more than 3.5' wide and I have to keep sawing down through roots to keep them in bounds. My husband & I dug two up in 2011 (it was awful!) and put some in pots and 2 where they had 4' to expand. Mistake. They obviously don't know how wide they are supposed to get. We are in our mid 70's and are sorry that we planted them. Any suggestions?

Gee, daniel26july, get them out somehow would be my advice! I'm attaching a link to the Ornamental Grass Forum where some folks suggested solutions to removing huge grasses.

Getting rid of such large grasses is backbreaking work so if you can afford it, maybe you could hire someone to dig up the plants PLUS all of their roots. I don't know if the other suggestions (round up/advertising free dig-your-own grasses) would work for you.

We have a Miscanthus sinensis 'Caberet' that is magnificent but getting too big. Every year my DH spends a day hacking part of it out. His comment last year was --- "I'm getting too old for this!" --- and he's in his early 60s.

Good luck!
Molie

Here is a link that might be useful: Removing Ornamental Grass