Well Camp...I know you don't want to 'resort' to lights too, but that's what they need....

(Hopefully this helps with your denial? ;)

If you need seed from a M. dubia and M riverchoni, just ask. I might have a M. lindheimerii. I often grow out the nameless wonders and wait for them to tell me who they are.

Sigh - yes, I sort of knew I was going to have to drag the prop-lights out. I have a couple of growlights - compact fluorescent things, so shall sit them in a cupboard with 400watts. I may as well get some use out of the electricity though - what else would you suggest I could sow apart from the obvious peppers.

Thank you, Mara - may well take you up on that offer - I really don't know why these have not got traction in the UK...when posh gardeners are still faffing with restios and the like.

Well I collected 2 types of M reverchonii (one native to my land and an "undaunted" one that was originally collected west of Dallas). M. dubia, M. lindheimerii, Muhlenbergia "pink Flamingos". They are small envelopes since this was not the best year for inflourescens due to the very late arrival of our fall rains. So speak up if you want them before I loose the envelopes in the seed and office clutter.

and an "undaunted" one that was originally collected west of Dallas

Update:

I often see glowing reviews of this grass i.e. Muhlenbergia reverchonii 'Undaunted" and an earlier blooming version "Fast Forward"

For those of you that have had experience with it how do you like it?

Any experience with it regarding its hardiness for a zone 4/5?

My little seedlings have survived the winter. True, they are still tiny...but undeniably alive. Thrilling!

@ Rouge, It is a robust surviver that performs differently in different environments. My inflorescence is not as colorful here than where it grows in TxR's yard. It is also larger in her yard. It is native to my land, But my variety grows smaller than the "Undaunted" until it finds it's seep to stick its toes in. That is why it is called seep muhly. The roots can go deep. I like its smaller dry form on the dry calcarious soils. It makes small wirey tuffs. A very nice low mounding texture in drifts. I will try to get a photo tomorrow. They are reputed at being more cold hardy than the M. capilleris.

@ Camp. They do start out tiny. The weeping muhly seems a bit faster from seeding.. My M. capileris is damn invisible. These are about a couple of weeks.

Yep, mine is exactly the same (unsurprisingly). Oddly enough, we appear to be using exactly the same pots'n'perlite'n dead leaves mix.

getting a nice little collection now - rigens, reverchonii,dubia, capilleris....got my eye on bamboo muhly, m.dumosa from Knoll Gardens (spendy though).

Dead leaves are from the oak tree above. I do like to give these natives a fast draining mix in hopes they don't damp off. The Bamboo muhly makes very few seeds and mine rarely flowers. I have kept my eyes on it but not caught it. It is a beauty of a grass. I did get freeze back on it this year when we dropped to 16F / -8C.

Just an aside but perhaps the reason the Muhly grass has not "caught on" in the UK is the weather. These grasses are just not good "doers" here in the PNW, likely due to our wet winters and soggy winter soils....even those that are well draining. The plants just don't make a strong comeback after winter, if they survive at all. We simply don't have a very "prairie minded" climate and I'd suspect your very similar UK climate is the same.

True GG...but small though the UK is, we do have some extraordinary geographical differences...and semi-arid east anglia looks like being a possible fit for muhly's (unlike anywhere at all on the western edge of Britain)...and anyway, it wouldn't be the first time I have embarked on a fool's errand. Note that M.capilleris is now being sold by 5 vendors according to the RHS plantfinder - a 250% increase in a couple of years...so finger's crossed.

M. capilleris does take the soggy ground of the east coast of the US. It is native all the way up from the Gulf of Mexico (why they call it Gulf Muhly) to coastal Massachusetts. NOW , I do not know how prevellant or what soils it is in Massachusetts. Desert muhly's like the drainage.

Rouge, Like I said , I grow the Undaunted in a daunting way in a warm fall climate. Further north it takes on more fall color, I hear. I like my native one better for the curly wiry appearance that it does in the dry washes that I have. My dirt is very thin. So this does act differently here than in Oklahoma and in places where the soil evaporation is less.. Bluestem and other colorful grasses act differently here. They get much larger there.AND they are more floriferous. They call it the TALLgrass prairie for a reason. I am in the midgraus prairie. I feel more like short, but that is even shorter. LOL

3 year old "undaunted"

Native one endemic to my land. TxR grew this one and it got large in her garden quickly.

This is a native patch that slowly gets larger. I think these are about 8 years old. The softness is very nice.

An excellent set of photos wantonamara. Thanks for doing this.

Rouge, This is a one sided show. It shows a grass in a specific extreme garden on very infertile soil.......NOT ontario. Muhly are famous for changing their behaviors according to environment. M lindheimeri will change from long and wispy, drapy and not very large in dry shade to a HUGE clump in a rich deep soil situation with routine water and sun..

Fore sure I understand wantonamara.

I do want to incorporate more ornamental grasses in our garden. Too simply put I am looking for gorgeous and hardy ;). So I appreciate reading about other people's faves coupled with their location.

The discussion about Muhleys and how differently they behave depending on environment is most interesting. I discarded our native Muhlenbergia rigens because it was just too big and messy. Massive really. I went to M. lindheimerei which is still large but definitely smaller and essentially evergreen in my climate. I find it much more manageable and an agreeable bluish color.

I bought M. Capillaris about four years ago and it is smaller yet and quite attractive though it didn't flower for me last year. It gets almost no water.

I tried M. emersleyi and have no idea why I don't have it any longer. Well, probably because I didn't have a space for it. It was definitely a small Muhley.

I am just experimenting with others. I bought a tiny Fast Forward from Santa Rosa Gardens last fall. And I am much interested in giving M. dubia a trial.

Hmmm - gorgeous and hardy grasses. My favorite grass might work in Ontario. Pennisetum alopecuroides and its many cultivars aren't called Fountain Grass without good reason. I love its very graceful arching form. It greens up very early, sometimes as early as late January in my garden, but this year not until about mid February and then slower than usual, no doubt because our winter was colder and wetter than normal. Then in summer to late summer, depending on cultivar come it's pretty flowers. It's best show comes in fall when it becomes multicolored as it gradually changes to its late fall/winter color of straw. I absolutely love its pleasing all winter presence and it only needs cutting back before it starts to shoot again in spring.