No, not a Miscanthus. You are I believe correct in thinking it is a Pennisetum, likely a cultivated selection of P. alopecuroides. There are some that are more than 5'.

Omg why would lowes do fake advertising.... It wasn't just one potted plant that was displayed in a random place. There were groupings of pots of all these same grasses and all had labels stating miscanthus sinensis 'adagio'. Damnit lowes. Never again

Yes, very frustrating indeed. I imagine Lowes would have received them mislabeled from their supplier. Unless they had experienced staff to catch the error they probably thought they were selling the proper plant. Does not help you though.

Well I've learned my lesson. Although this was grass was the only perennial in my front yard that deer nor rabbits even took a nibble at this season. Didn't know ornamental grasses were that resistant to them.

Ornamental grasses are extremely deer & rabbit resistant. I live surrounded by forest and have heavy deer predation. Ornamental Grasses, Aconitum, Coreopsis, Epimedium, Dicentra, Nepeta, Kirengeshoma most Geranium and several others are never bothered.

I need to spray Hosta. Delphinium, Daylily flower buds need protection and many others.

Which I never understood why though. They're not odorous, not poisonous or anything. I know that the texture is scaly and unpleasant but then again deer eat roses and they even ate my spiny aralia elata! They also nibbled on my agastache rugosa and callicarpa which are minty plants as well. I really don't understand deer behavior.

Nor do I. Deer diet is nothing but unpredictable from one area to another, one garden to another and one year to another. Polygonatum were devoured last year whereas they had never been touched in decades. Nasty, nasty deer!

Nobody can garden in peace as long as deer are around. My polygonatum were chomped the second day after planting. Rabbits are also weird. They eat my ferns here for some reason. Japanese painted and dryopteris. And sometimes they leave leaf fragments on the ground as if they spit it out. They eat plants I spray heavily with liquid fence. And they decide to nest under a mass of azaleas in which they are extremely poisonous too. Not sure how you can possibly be comfortable living in a place full of toxic stuff above and around you. I don't understand wild animal behavior at all and I don't think I ever will.

Peren.all, do you have hakonechloa macra? If so do rabbits or deer ever bother them?

I do not Heruga. I am at the very edge of it's hardiness but I am sure I will try it at some point. I do grow Molinia c. 'Variegata', Arrhenatherum and other similarly textured grasses and they have never been touched.

My garden is routinely visited by deer and they can browse anything!! But they have never touched any grasses, hakone grass included. No rabbits here....too many coyotes and raccoons.

Ok. I did some research myself on relationship between Hakone grass and rabbits and it seems rabbits do feast on it time to time. Yet I have never seen any browse on Miscanthus or pennisetum or calamagrostis. Maybe its because hakone grass is small and easily accessible by rabbits.

Everything ate my hakone grasses - mice, cats, dogs, birds, rabbits - they were regarded as a luscious salad bar and routinely munched into invisibility. I no longer bother.

Camp, those Hakones look like a luscious feast. I would eat it too if I could.