You might consider asking in the Ornamental Grasses forum. It gets a lot more traffic than the Texas one, and I know there are several active participants in that forum from Texas and nearby states.

Some type of Muhly (Muhlenbergia lindheimeri, for instance) might be a good fit. Santa Rosa Gardens has a great selection of ornamental grasses if you're up for ordering via web.

Here is a link that might be useful: Santa Rosa Gardens

Whoops, I was looking at the wrong forum for message counts. Certainly plenty of traffic in the TX forum. <:->

The white-flowered pampas grass does do very well here, but not sure about it being especially fast growing. Ours took 2 or 3 years to begin flowering from 1 gal nursery stock. Intent was to buy the smaller pink variety, but nursery had it mislabeled. We eventually replaced it with big muhly grass (Lindheimer's) when it outgrew it's spot. Lowland switch grass is another large one that does well here. Inland sea oats is a great one for shade. Most land around here was originally prairie, so lots of native and imported grass options that do well.

'Morning light' miscanthus looks pretty all summer, then blooms majestically - I like it much better than pampas grass (plus it won't shred your hands as you trim it back).

Gulf muhly is kind of low-key all summer, then it blooms and looks like a cloud of cotton candy. One of my friends planted it at her house on the golf course, and she's had golfers stop to ask what it was.

I HATE pampus grass. I hated the spring cleaning and the cuts on my arms. It is one of those plants I enjoy in other peoples gardens. also in mine, the blossoms were always made into a soggy mess with a August thunderstorm as soon as they opened. Never fail. I always wondered why I planted it.

Muhlenbergia lindheimeri ( big muhly is so much nicer and kinder than Pampus grass.. I was just dividing Muhlenbergia emersleyi "el toro" this afternoon and finding new spots for it. I have also just planted Mulenbergia "Pink Flamingo", a natural hybrid of Big Muhley and Gulf coast muhly. I am experimenting with Muhlenbergia riverchoni " burnt embers" also known as "undaunted" which is originally from an area west of Dallas but was a population that was plowed under but Scott Ogden collected it and it is now in the trade.. If you want size, Sacaton wrighti is your man. I have some seed and some baby plants on the way. Deer and pine muhley is pretty cool . Mexican feather grass is beautiful.

I must admit that I am going a bit grass crazy right now. I have all of the above and I just planted a bunch of seed for bush muhley, ring muhly, sleepy grass, needle and thread grass, purple tree awn, blue heaven bluestem. Some people are more obsessive than others. I stick with the natives because I am out in the country and do not want to be the cause of escaped aliens. I am fighting enough of them already. I need everything to be really drought tolerant because once they are established, they are on their own. The miscanthus need a richer dirt than I can provide and some irrigation, but they are nice.

Wantonamara...By several of your posts I bet you have a lot of land. You really appreciate it and bet it's beautiful. Your information is great and honest. Will check all of these out and every one anyone mentioned.

Thank you Texasgin, I talk a good talk but I am also very good at killing plants because I garden on the edge of survivability. Yes, I do have some land, not huge but I only "garden" a tiny bit of it. I live off of rainwater so I live like I am always in a drought. My full tanks do not fool me.
You are right, I do really love restoring my land. I love finding the system of the land and plant accordingly. I am not a purist but I like to make sure that the aliens are not huge seeders. I am always confused why people move to the hill country and then try to make it look like North Carolina or Massachusetts. I walk outdoors and what I see is knocked gorgeous and I could not dream of putting in a lawn. I am a HOA's nightmare. Most is a shortgrass prairie and cedar/oak woodland. I am on the "Fracture Zone of the Edwards Plateau. I just love that term . tickles me pink , it does, it does.

If you want to read a good book, I recommend The American Meadow Garden by John Greenlee. It is all about using sedges and grasses in the landscape and replacing the lawn. Also any book by Scott Ogden and Lara springer (ogden).

OOPS, duplicate post

This post was edited by wantonamara on Sun, Feb 8, 15 at 20:21