Yes! And tell them I said it was OK!

I'm over 55, so I know.

Well, you'll probably be hittin' the road if you put in a 12' Arundo donax or the bigger cultivars of Miscanthus. But it sounds like the people who wrote the rules there don't know jack pellets about gardening.

Get a good book* on grasses or check out some of the better OG nurseries online;** there's much info about all that throughout this forum.

Some grasses to consider as specimens or en masse: Achnatherum calamagrostis (recently reclassified, I think), most of the Pennisetums, Helictotrichon, the shorter Molinias (M. cerulea) or Deschampsias; the short but heart-stopping Sporobolus; Themeda japonica for fall colorÂthe list is huge. In zone 7 you can even grow some (under18"!) great Stipas (S. tenuisima) or CarexesÂcheck out the ones of New Zealand origin. Lucky you.

*Rick Darke: Color Encyclopedia of Orn. Grasses

**Here are two online nurseries near NJ:
in MD: http://www.earthlypursuits.net
in PA: http://www.limerockgrasses.com

Hi knupp,

The grasses are plants in the same general category at perennials. They die back to the ground in fall (in z5 at least!), and come back up from the roots in spring. Shrubs or bushes are woody and don't die back to the ground each year. The new growth comes out of the existing branches.

And tell them they should allow BIG plants too. The bigger the better! And I'm over 55, so I know too!

Happy ornamental grass hunting,
Skybird

P.S. Check out Pennisetum Alopecuroides 'Moudry'.

thanks to all responses knupp