I have several of the Pine Muhlies and I too like their neat even symetricality. I am over due on trimming them back. Maybe I will just pull the dead fronds out and see how that goes.. A good way to waste a few hours. Cutting will be quicker.

As for drought tolerance . Have no worries. I never water mine and it got through a dry summer, fall and winter. I think we are hotter than you where I am in Central Texas.

I always confuse it with Muhlenbergia dumosa, or bamboo Muhley which I love to pieces also for opposite reasons. Soft light green feathery, but large if it is z9. I am 8b almost 8a so it gets frozen back to the ground on an occasional winter.... Not this winter.

Good to hear about how drought tolerant dubia is, thanks! I am struggling to convert more of my garden to low water use plants. I am using mostly natives to provide habitat for our native insects and other natives, but am making an exception of dubia as it is far more suitable for my small garden compared to the California native Muhly. M. rigens Is twice the size and not half as handsome.

i know what you mean about pruning out the flowers vs cutting them back! I am struggling with just that. I decided to cut one back and the other one gets just the flowers trimmed. Time consuming, yes! M capillaris gives me the same decision problem because it stays evergreen, even more evergreen than dubia. And so does Stipa gigantea. Every time I walk past the Stipa I debate whether to cut it back or not. Since I’ve waited too long I will have to default to pruning out the flowers,

I haven’t tried growing M. dumosa, don’t quite know why I’ve overlooked it, probably because it is large. Though I am growing M. lindheimeri which is very large. i also have M. reverchonii and M. capillaris and both of them are smaller and handsome. I used to grow M. emersley but it was unremarkable so I didn’t keep it around.

M. emersley is beautiful here. Strange. I like it because it is more drought hardy than M. lindheimeri with is native to my land BUT it grows where water collects. Whereas west texas version will grow in harsher conditions and give a nice show. in the fall.

Now I feel bad I dumped it (lol). As I recall it was in the way when I decided to sow seeds for a low mow grass I wanted to try out, Festuca rubra. And now I’m ready to get rid of Festuca rubra because it seeds about too prolifically and the seedlings are really tough to pull. My experimental gardening propensities sometimes backfire on me. Should I bring back M. emersleyi? Probably not, more likely I’ll choose to replace with dubia or capillaris or even Stipa gigantea.