Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Stipa Gigantea

Stipa gigantea beginning to bloom behind a blue bearded iris in my front border
     I was recently reading an entry on one of the blogs I follow--Rhone Street Gardens-- about a visit to Wind Dancer Gardens, a nursery (now closed, I believe) specializing in grasses.  While I have never been to that nursery, it reminded me of my love for grasses and how my use of them in my garden has changed over time.  It used to be that I loved grasses so much that I tried to grow every one that I could get my hands on.  I went through miscanthus phases where I grew all sorts of them, then cortaderia (Pampas grass) phases, then carex phases, then New Zealand grass phases... You can get the picture.
     Anyway, over time, and for various reasons, I have cut back on the kinds of grasses I grow.  Probably the number one reason for this is that many of them--particularly the big ones-- got to be too much work.  They required much labor in cutting them back in the spring, and if they ever needed dividing, like some miscanthuses do, then God help you.  Pampas grasses were too messy looking in the winter and also too much labor.  Others seeded themselves about too much, such as Anemanthele lessoniana.  Still others I removed because they declined over time as my bamboos grew and shaded them out.  Also, since I have so many bamboos in my garden, the shape and form of most grasses is redundant.  Finally, as I got into photography I wanted more flowers, so grasses made way for more flamboyant flowering plants.
     This brings me to the present, where I am only growing a few grasses and those can be summed up with the words Stipas and Hakonechloas.  I grow three types of Stipas in my front border.   Stipa gigantea, Stipa tenuissima ( I still refer to it this way, rather than as Nassella which is its new name), and Stipa barbata.  In my fenced in garden I grow a lot of Hakonechloa and I have previously written about the Hakonechloa 'All Gold' that I grow in pots here.
     Today's post is about one of those stipas in my front border--Stipa gigantea.  This is a great plant for a sunny, dry site.  As you can see from the picture, the blooms are starting to emerge now, and they make a wonderful airy backdrop to all the flowering plants in the front border.    The basal foliage of this stipa is only about a foot tall, but the flowering spikes extend a couple of feet above that.  Over time that base will exceed a couple of feet in diameter.  Since this grass flowers relatively early for a grass in this region, it coincides with the big flowering extavaganza which occurs in this border in June.
     This grass looks pretty good all year long, but I cut it back to the ground every spring.  This neatens it up and it quickly regrows from that haircut.  By the way, I am often asked by gardeners if they can cut something back that looks bad.  My advice always is to cut it back, whatever it is, if it is ugly.  The worst that can happen is that you will kill the plant, but if it is ugly, who cares?  If it lives, you will have improved it quite a bit.
      I find seedlings here and there of this grass, but it is not a major weed like some other grasses I have grown including Stipa tenuissima.  Stipa gigantea is also quite long lived for a grass.  The one in the picture has probably been there for about 10 years.
    

13 comments:

  1. I just put Stipa barbata in my front dry steppe garden, and it has done very well in a deep limestone scree. I'm planning on collecting most of the awns to share, so I don't expect it to become too weedy. I would love a post about it to see the mature plants in your garden.

    Whatever happened to the Ruksans order?

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    1. Hi Susan- thanks for the comment. I will try to post a full on picture of this Stipa sometime. As for the Ruksans order, things have been very busy here lately and it seems like such a pain to make an order. You might be better off to make your own order. I will have some future blog on what has been keeping me so busy. Linda

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  2. Very beautiful grass. Lovely bloom... I like your philosophy about cutting things back. I'm a big proponent of pruning and 'Shovel pruning' when necessary. There is only so much space in my gardens so no room for anything that isn't attractive and earning it's real estate

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    1. Hi Deanne-thanks for the comment. I do like your 'Shovel pruning' idea. As you may have gathered, I share your philosophy that there is only so much space in the garden and that things have to prove their worth to stay.

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  3. I haven't grown miscanthus for years for the reasons you give -- a nightmare to split up. Right now my faves are Stipa gigantea and helicotrichon. That stipa is fantastic as a backdrop to bearded iris. Coincidentally, I was just researching bearded iris this morning. That's another one that seemed too labor intensive, needing constant dividing and rejuvenating. But looking at your photo, I can be talked into them again!

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    1. Hi Denise-thanks for the comment. I thought as you did about irises until last year when I saw how great they are in the drought tolerant, deer resistant border. I may still change my mind about them when I have to divide them, but I am loving them now and will be posting more pictures of them soon.

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  4. I had to hire someone to dig out my Miscanthus 'Morning Light' which I foolishly planted in spite of the diminutive size of my garden. I have since purchased Miscanthus 'Rigoletto' from Digging Dog which I hope will grow to the size described in the catalog. It's quite beautiful so far. S. gigantea is one of my favorites.I only have one , but it is politely sized and courteous to its neighbors.

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    1. Thanks for the comment. I will have to check out 'Rigoletto'. I'm not familiar with it. It is true that it practically takes a backhoe to dig out a mature miscanthus.

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  5. I adore Stipa gigantea...but it's one grass that just didn't love my garden, and, sadly, I had to give it away to a better home. I just wasn't able to give it the sun it needed, and the blooms flopped hopelessly :-( I think the Miscanthus were the first grasses I gravitate towards (years ago), probably just because they were different from what I was surrounded with...but over the past several years, have become more enamored of Panicums, Molinias and Achnatherums...as well as flop-proof varieties of Schizachyrium (found it) and Andropogon & Sorghastrum (still looking) I just planted my first Stipa barbata this spring...and am SO excited for it to bulk up...I've seen photos and it is wondrous!

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    1. Hi Scott- you are way ahead of me on some of these grasses. I do like the Achnatherums and used to have a mass quantity of them around my lionness sculpture. I will have a post on Stipa barbata soon, but I agree that it is a great little grass.

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  6. After reading here that you cut your S. gigantea to the ground each year in spring, I decided to do the same – if it works for someone as obviously skilled as you, it should work for me, especially considering the similarity of our climates (I'm in southern Vancouver Island).

    So today (March 5, 2016) I was out cutting back my S. gigantea clumps when I noticed that some of bits I'd cut off looked like new culms. I've already done half of my eight clumps and am terrified that I may have cut off what would have been this year's flower heads.

    Do you by any chance cut them back much earlier in the year, or in your experience will cut culms somehow regenerate, or do new culms emerge after a good trim? Or did I really screw up? :-)

    Erik

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    1. Hi Erik- They will still flower fine, even if you accidentally cut some of the flowering stalks. Linda

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    2. Thanks a lot, Linda, that's encouraging – although I do believe I've cut in half all of the new culms on a couple of the clumps...

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