I ended up taking out the panicums I had -- they didn't get very tall, I think they just didn't like the conditions where I had them. I have a nice clump of turkeyfoot ( Andropogon gerardii) that is thriving right next to where the panicums were growing, so who knows what they didn't like {shrug}.

Hmm, my post should say "deep red color," not "deer red color" but Houzz doesn't want me to correct it.

Panicum 'Prairie Fire' did not color up much at all despite the very warm dry weather, on the other hand 'Prairie Flame' was much better, though I must state was only a new acquisition this summer. Andropogon 'Blackhawks' remains looking good despite the recent frosts, it's truly a must have ornamental grass!

I only have Pennisetums because they are manageable and easy enough to move when you want to. But I'm always looking for something different with more height and better fall color. I just don't want to plant something that will eventually become difficult to get rid of. I had one Pennisetum that reseeded everywhere and I dug that out and threw it away last fall. The little seedlings were not easy to get out, so I'm very glad to be rid of it.

I'd love to see photos of your grasses and hear about what your experiences are with management.

I don't have a cell phone to take pictures and don't know much about how to post pictures, but since the landscaping here is not even a year old, I can't say much about management. But I want to ask the people with Andropogons, 'Blackfoot' or other cultivar: any problems with reseeding?

I stopped growing Pennisetums years ago at my previous place because of the reseeding problems. P. 'Moudry' was gorgeous, but it seeded everywhere.

I had various panicums back when I was in my 'prairie phase' but no longer grow any of the perennials. I do, however, grow an annual: panicum capillaire...which may prove to be a self-seeding nightmare or remain as a mannerly addition to floral bouquets.As with all grasses, careful placing to catch the sun is essential. Not too unlike my other favourite light-catchers - stipa gigantea and deschampsia caespitosa.

Both my cameras are down unfortunately. The panicum grasses bloom earlier and can make viable seeds even in my northern location, though Andropogon 'Blackhawks' flowers rather late and not even close to setting seed before being frosted a few nights ago, I don't know of the seed out rate in more southernly climes.

Am loving miscanthus 'Little Miss' all very nicely colored up sitting in her container, I previously had it in ground, but prefer it showing off on my back deck. Think I'll also get miscanthus 'Fire Dragon'.

I've stopped growing Miscanthus because I see them escaping into nature. And for many years I grew Ravenna grass; it was quite a presence. Then we stopped having winter and I began to find seedlings everywhere. Even small they were hard to remove. As soon as I figured out what was going on, the grass went.

That's one thing about growing Big Bluestem and Switch grass, they're native here and not a problem if they should reseed.

Well, yes, not invasive, but would rather not have a lot of reseeding in the mulched beds.

Then probably the proper topic is appropriateness. In nature (as you no doubt know), the role of the grass in the prairie is to be the primary vegetation and hold soil in place. Obviously, this involves prolific reseeding :)

So, I guess just working as designed.

Well yes, but ALL our gardens are 100% artifice...prairies (or meadows or woodlands for that matter, are not analogous to horticulture.

Ok, maybe I can try one more panicum. I like them but removed a few because of that 'bleached out' color that sets in for winter, and there's already enough of that around once winter really sets in.

'Dallas Blues' doesn't have any red at all, but once the fall color fades they keep a reddish brown color through winter until spring. It's quite nice in my opinion, just sayin lol

I am redoing largish areas of my allotment and looking out for some grasses again but, as well as contending with rubbish soil and drought, the reseeding is a serious worry of mine. I keep a LOT of self-seeding plants because I do enjoy the out-of-control serendipity...but I have gotten to be pretty good at recognising cotyledons of unwanted weeds...but have never managed the same trick with grasses...which, frankly, scare me a wee bit.

I contend with a horrendous couch grass and wild oats via neighbours so have tended to be entirely ruthless with weeding out suspicious monocots...but still, they place themselves in the centre of my dieramas, species paeonies (I only have a couple) and precious, hand-raised (over years) seedlings.I have a few pots of muhlenbergia (capillaris and reverchonii), various fescues, deschampsia and chionochloa...which I have been too anxious to plant out at the allotment (especially since various stipas ran amok). Ornamental grass lovers - how do you contend with all these creeping fears? Given the dry, sandy soil, should I even bother? I would love a billowy grassland, filled with airy perennials and my beloved umbellifers but alas, this is just not going to happen (without intense irrigation and soil supplements...so no).

Am I forever limited to teeny festucas.

Rosaprimula - I don't know what your zone is, I'm in USA z 6b, so I do have cold enough winters to keep some grasses from being a problem. I'm not really sure if that is the reason I don't have a problem with Pennisetum 'Hamelin' but I've had this grass for over 10 years and still love it. It is not too hard to dig or divide and move. It does stay neat and most years it puts up a good display of heads that are attractive. You can see here that it also turns attractive colors in the fall. this year because of basically no rain for 2 months and higher heat than normal, this fall there are no seed heads showing at all, but I think the fall color is better. It doesn't get huge so for me it's a one trick pony, but better than nothing. I'd love it if I could add a taller grass to the mix and have both. I have gotten reseeding, but very very gently. I will end up with a seedling to use in another area every once in awhile. I don't know if that would help you or not but thought I'd throw it out there.

I see that there are now sterile cultivars of Pennisetum alopecuroides. One of them is called 'Cayenne', but there are a few others. I might try 'Cayenne' next spring.

https://www.nurserymag.com/article/plant-production-infertile-fountain-grass-self-seed/

Laceyvail - i've tried a number of larger Pennisetums. I tried 'Karley Rose' which was a lot larger, but it was awful. Never looked neat and symetrical. It just looked a mess and it became too large and unruly and I don't really remember all the reasons I had for not liking it, but I threw it out after a few years. A few years ago, I bought 'Desert Plains' and I do like that one. It has a little better Fall color than 'Hamelin' but it's not that much larger and really, right now it doesn't look much different than 'Hamelin'.

I like the sound of the new infertile varieties. And that 'Cayenne' looks to be a larger variety. Thanks for the link.

O thank you, Prairiemoon, I grew Karley Rose ages ago but without surrounding support, it flopped over and looked a bit grim. I almost did that thing when everyone was buying some deep pinkish, tender ones but honestly, I am such a cheapskate, it is unimaginable to actually BUY an annual anything. My allotment neighbours buy lettuce plug plants, to my utter astonishment. Wondering about eragrostis elliotii (mostly cos I can get seed from one of my fave suppliers). I have been down the ornamental grass route before but did not have great results, tbh - even deschampsia failed to thrive and I had a dreadful experience with hordeum (getting in my dogs feet and costing a fortune at the vets).

I have been a bit bored and stuck at home, so spending far too much time looking at other people's unattainable gardens (and despairing). I am my own worst enemy, though. If I was younger and hipper, I would probably be claiming ADHD and insisting on special treatment...instead of flip-flopping between mad schemes and doing my usual thing of ordering seed, but forgetting what I had planned after a couple of years of tending seedlings. Only a coupla weeks ago, I was happily planning xeriscapes, yet my last seed order is yet another love affair with umbellifers...which do not care to be moved or divided and often die as soon as they flower. Thankfully, my little home garden is looking pretty hot - just a handful of late flowering sages and large leaved perennials can really fill a space and look like I know what I am doing.

Rosaprimula, your modesty about your gardens is becoming, but I have a feeling that you greatly underestimate yourself and your gardens. I know we'd all love to see some pictures. But since I never post pictures myself--no cell phone or camera and little knowledge of how to do it anyhow--I understand completely why you don't.

And I never had luck with 'Karley Rose' either; I barely remember what it was like, it was so many years ago.

Ha, well I bit the bullet and ordered eragrostis spectabils (and elliotii) and andropogon Prairie Blues (have been on the Jellitoe website)...and am back on the xeric path, so have ordered expensive lewisia seed, callirhoe bushii and fame flower - talinum something or other. Oh yeah, penstemon grandiflorus and a yellow delphinium (!) I grew years ago - semi-barbatum Xalil...which I adored. I am officially an 'Old Age Pensioner' and will be getting a state pension...so decided to celebrate free money on a spending spree (have already done Chilterns, Special Plants and now working up to Plantworld). Have planned a plant stall next year so will recoup my money (I hope).

Ho, you are very kind laceyvail. After I had been gardening for a decade or thereabouts, I felt I was doing OK but needed a bit of encouragement to step out of my comfort zone, so went off to garden school for a few years...where I had an eye-opener and realised I knew nothing. In fact, as the years rolled by, I found that the more I knew, the less I actually did know. I just about managed to get to a state of not caring anymore (cos I am old) but still fall back into my self-critical, anxiety causing ways...especially when I have time on my hands.

Recently, I have just about managed a couple of blurry and not very good pics, so I swear, I am going to make an effort to tackle my useless technical phobia...

Who among us is satisfied with their garden OR their gardening skills? [g] Not me! When you see a stunning garden, you look at your own and question what you've been doing with your time...lol. But really, I think the sooner we all get to the place where we accept ourselves and our gardens and enjoy our time gardening, the better off we are. I'd bet that even the person with the 'stunning' garden, looks at it with some degree of dissatisfaction.

I think it is rare to have the 'magic touch' in the garden. Many gardeners are more growers than designers. Not that I'm saying don't take an honest look at your garden and set some goals to make changes that improve our satisfaction with the way it looks, because that might help. Or, find a friend whose garden you admire and ask for some help in whatever aspect of your garden that you find challenging.

I am perpetually disappointed with my garden and have expectations that are unrealistic. I have too critical an eye too. But I've adopted an attitude of 'putting on the blinders' and spend more time in the area of the garden that I think is going well and improve that until it gives me more satisfaction before moving on to the more challenging areas. And really, in the end, I love growing and I love plants, I love the act of gardening, I love being outdoors in lots of different weather [except heat {g}] - so there is always something to be happy about.

rosaprimula, I think I'm correct in remembering that eragrostis spectabilis is a prolific reseeder, so forewarned is forearmed. Or something.

Rosaprimula - Prairie Blues is pretty. I had callirhoe and I enjoyed it and come to think of it, it was drought tolerant. I did something to it and I don’t have it any more but I’d enjoy having it again. I love my Penstemon. It has a long bloom time, then pretty seedheads that stay erect and decorative the rest of the season for the most part. Then this fall, the foliage was the prettiest color reds. Now I can’t remember if it always does that. It does reseed on me a good amount, but only because I never deadhead it.

'prolific reseeder' - those dread words. I will just have to be prepared to sacrifice some of the lovely flowers with a savage strimmer. Timing will, I think, be crucial...although those words strike terror in my heart too, since strategic timing is not a skill I have ever possessed. If all else fails, I will fall back on my usual excuse - a 'garden primarily for wildlife'...which excuses the general chaos.

O Prairie - a grower and not a designer - so, so true. And yet, in other people's gardens, I manage to achieve a degree of discipline I never get close to in my own. When I did design and build for customers, I would often spout little homilies such as 'repetition, repetition, repetition' or waffle on about 'the vernacular' and 'genius loci'. Never far from my lips was 'less is more...but in all my own gardens, more is better, and I only ever buy 5 or 7 or 9 of the same plant when I am spending someone else's money. When it's mine, I buy one of everything. So yep, it's a bit of a mishmash. My current hope is to start over with a plan and sow, enough select plants to grow in coherent, harmonious drifts and matrices (as if). Still, I am also very skilled at unseeing too, (especially when I leave my specs at home).

Rosaprimula - That's interesting that you do it differently for clients and are happier with the outcome. You know I do the same thing to a degree, buying one of everything. I think it might have something to do with the size of the property that you don't want to miss an opportunity to grow something that you really want in a limited space - and then there is the issue of budget too. It's funny though, I have multiples this year due to division and I don't know what to do with them. lol I placed them, but I'm not happy with the placement. Oh well. lol

O god yes, I divided a couple of daylilies and then got flummoxed where to put them. I couldn't see the point of dotting them around the place but wondered why I had bothered to divide (perfectly OK) plants and not just leave them as a nice sizeable clump. You know, after all these years, I expected to feel all confident and competent and here I am, dithering again. I never dither in clients gardens cos a) most of them have no clue about plants or gardens and are happy with whatever I do and b) I don't care because I am never going to see it again once I have planted up and gone. Slightly different with the ones I end up maintaining but even then, I am not anything like as invested as I am in mine.

And there is the question of becoming an outrageous plant snob...craving rare, brown, difficult plants instead of being happy with a perfectly good potentilla or something (although I do go through a 'cottage garden phase' or ' old fashioned annuals' which usually works much better than collecting tiny alpine bulbs or such.

Grief, it's a conundrum isn't it?

rosaprimula, I don't know your age, but for me, it's all gotten easier as I've gotten older. I no longer have to have every single rare specimen or try every new plant I come across. As the need has come to simplify it all--the work load not least--I'm quite satisfied with the much simpler landscape I'm creating and have (nearly) done.

I agree with Laceyvail, as you get older and you start to feel the reduction of ability to keep up with it all, in an attempt to preserve your ability to garden at all, you have to make changes that you can live with. I'm very happy that I had a period of time where I could do a lot of different kinds of gardening and it was very satisfying. Now I'm working on developing the perfect garden for me for right now. As manageable as possible and as attractive as possible. [g]

Rosaprimula, Eragrostis spectabils/purple love grass is a stunning plant in the fall and grows wild in my back field and along the edges of roads where there is poor sandy soil. The edges of the highways and my field just glow, especially in late day sun, in August. Their seed dispersal mechanism is sort of like tumbleweed ; the flowering stems break off when the seeds are ripe, and roll along in the breeze shedding seeds as they go. So if you cut off the seed heads, it will have to be as they are starting to fade and you will need to gather them and bury them somehow to prevent them taking off across the allotment on the next breezy day.

I don’t have any Andropogon, but I do have Schizachyrium scoparium/little bluestem. It has lovely bluegreen foliage all season with occasional pops of red/gold/orange and takes on more color late season plus has attractive fall seedheads. It is tough enough to stand up to the first few light snows. There two grasses grow well together.

I am most likely to use grasses in wild prairie or meadow conditions. I use grass-like plants in garden beds, but because I have serious grass allergies I don’t use actual grasses where I might have skin contact in maintaining garden beds, so I do not know how much of an issue either of these are in gardens. I do have to remove the Eragrostis from my gravel driveway and veggie garden, so the seedheads do travel quite a distance.

I do not use nonnative grasses because I am worried about invasiveness.

.Yes, it was your lovegrass which brought it to mind, NHBabs. You posted a couple of lovely pics, a few years ago, which obviously impressed me because I have never grown it myself or knowingly seen it IRL.

There is an increasing appetite to plant for wildlife, growing wild flowers and managed hedges and such, in the UK. but I don't think there is a significant interest in native plant life ( various reasons).