Relaxing Footage of Hardy Pampas Grass Gently Swaying in the Breeze

This specimen grass is extraordinary, and when the feathery tops are in full bloom and backlit by the sun, it's a special moment. I tried my best to capture it using my 'real' camera and not just an iPhone. I turned the footage into a short but hopefully intensely relaxing video. Now you can experience the relief of watching this massive 15 foot tall grass dropping seeds as it sways in the breeze.



I hope you liked it! Also check out my other photos of this impressive hardy pampas grass. PS what what what? Blogger lets you add emojis in the desktop editor? How cool! 🌾

Hardy Pampas Grass Season 2

I absolutely love this exotic specimen grass. I feel dwarfed by it, and I imagine being on the African Savanna or in the jungles of Vietnam - not that I've ever been there or know what it's like, but this huge grass just seems so out of place in an Indiana backyard. I also like how it blocks my neighbors house, and looks to be easily 15 feet tall in just it's 2nd year. The only downside is that it only looks good for a few months a year and then I'm left with a rather bare corner of the yard waiting for this warm weather grass to wake up again.

Last year, this grass put up 2 stalks and clocked in for a final height of 10 feet 8 inches. Judging by the height of the fence and the photo from last year, I'm guessing it will easily smash that record. There are also (let me count them) over a dozen large stalks this year.

Here is this year's grass:

Erianthus ravennae 'Hardy Pampas Grass'

Compared to last year:

Pampas grass last year

Hardy Pampas Grass Final Height

I put my Hardy Pampas Grass in Fall 2013 (got it on sale) and it woke up in early May, then put out 1 super tall stalk and 2 other much smaller ones. I heard these things can get up to 15 feet tall! I'm hoping next year it puts up more stalks to help block the neighbor's house - but it was fun having 1 huge one poking over the top of the fence like this. And it held up in the wind all fall and winter so far until I cut it down yesterday during a freak heat wave in the upper 50's.

Laid out a measuring tape to see the final stats for the Pampas Grass stalk height

I'm going to call it 10 feet 8 inches because I cut it a little above ground level

 Then I walked around the yard comparing it to other things to see how tall it looked. I put it up against the side of the house with the arborvitae, I put it in my river birch, and convinced Chris to take a photo of me holding it.

Now I just have to wait 3 months for it to grow again, ugh, maybe it will come back faster since we had a warm winter and it had a chance to root in all last year.

I need to find a suitable ground cover for this corner so it looks like I have more going on when this thing isn't growing, because it's the only thing in this entire corner bed. I even thought about moving this to the side and putting in an arborvitae with some little perennials at the base, but I don't know where this big thing would go.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - October 2015

I've still got some color on this gorgeous Fall day! The weather has been dry and sunny, not as wet as last year. That means more watering to be done for the trees and relatively new lawn, and nice clear nights for stargazing.

It's the day after Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, so I thought I'd submit my day-late post since I have the day off on this beautiful Friday.

Let's see what we have today... My hardy pampas grass in the corner of the yard is doing great in its first full growing season. It put up one massive stalk with a wonderful feathery plume on top, and there are 2 more much shorter stalks going up. One of the smaller ones bloomed just the other day. It's odd to see one 9 foot and two 4 foot stalks, but I guess it just couldn't muster the energy to make these as tall as the first.

Smaller bloom on Erianthus ravennae 'Hardy Pampas Grass', see taller one here

Next, the all-star of my Fall garden has been the New England aster 'Purple Dome' - the flowers are maturing and drying up a bit, but from a distance the purple color is still a nice touch. I noticed the pollinators started arriving once the flowers had matured a bit rather than right when they opened.

Aster novae-angliae 'Purple Dome'

Other honorable mentions to go Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride' for blooming for a second time in their first year (I just put them in this Spring). And Salvia sylvestris 'Little Night' that has been sputtering out but still holding color after dead-heading a few rounds of earlier blooms.

Finally, my Russian sage 'Little Spire' is doing a great job hiding the utility box in the front yard, but also provides a great hiding place for rabbits - so I have mixed feelings at this point. At least the purple flowers add some color to what is becoming a big messy brush patch.

Russian sage 'Little Spire' getting a little brushy

It's also worth mentioning that my linden tree out front still has a good amount of yellow leaves on it. This time last year it was completely bare. After 1.5 years of no growth, I'm hoping to see some action this Spring since it will have had plenty of time to get its roots in order.

Erianthus ravennae 'Hardy Pampas Grass'

My Erianthus ravennae 'Hardy Pampas Grass' is about to bloom! It's growing a tall central stalk that is already about 8 or 9 feet tall. In the photos below for reference the fence is 4 feet tall. Wow!

Erianthus ravennae 'Hardy Pampas Grass' with a tall stalk but not yet blooming

The central stalk has nodes along the way up that look like bamboo, I'm assuming to provide rigid structure to hold this massive stem up so high into the wind. It sways constantly in the breeze. Think of the amount of resources going into producing these 2 tall plumes (there is another smaller one on the way).

I'm in love with the little hairs at each node

A total of 2 fruiting stalks are growing, you can tell because they are much thicker and have a red hue

Update 9-27-2015: The seed plume is blooming on top of the long stalk, slowly opening and drying in the sun. I used my telephoto lens to try to get a detail picture of the top from side view because it's out of reach for an iPhone photo.

Hardy Pampas Grass blooming with it's seed plume opening

Hardy pampas grass in the morning sun

Expanding Mulch Beds

As my ornamental grasses get bigger, the little mulch beds under them look smaller and smaller. I think the beds need to be expanded so that the ornamental grasses don't hang over the lawn. A nice mulch apron out in front looks good, and also helps raise the bed up above the lawn. If the mulch is too low, it collects grass clippings and looks crappy, so I'm going for higher pillowy mulch.

This bed of Northwind switch grass looked nice enough when they were just tiny stumps from divisions, but now that they are getting bigger the slim bed just wasn't sufficient. 

I cut an outline with a spade and rolled up the sod. Even after a year, there was still a clean divide between the sod layer and the clay slab below

I filled in the trench left from the sod removal with some topsoil (a step I didn't do last time)

Then I mulched on top and created an angled lip along the front edge to give the bed a raised fluffy look

In the other corner of the backyard I have my Hardy Pampas Grass and a huge rock (and 3 spare rocks that I guess are just becoming part of that corner permanently unless I can figure out what to do with them). I eventually want to put something else around the bottom of the pampas grass but I'm not sure what. I also wanted to raise the bed up a little because it is a magnet for grass clippings being lower than the actual lawn itself.

Removed some sod and added more topsoil to raise the bed a bit. It's the low spot of the yard and fills with grass clippings whenever I mow near it. I'm also tired of mowing around the rock, so now the rock is a feature instead of a big thing on the edge of the bed. 

What should I put around the base of the pampas grass? Something full sun that can take some damp soil every now and then.

Erianthus ravennae 'Hardy Pampas Grass' Waking Up!

It looks like my Erianthus ravennae 'Hardy Pampas Grass' is finally showing signs of life. I didn't notice at first because the brown dry blades were all cut the same length when I gave it a winter buzz cut - and then suddenly some of the brown blades were getting taller (with no sign of any green shoots). Then I noticed green actually pushing the brown up and out of an old dry stalk.

Erianthus ravennae 'Hardy Pampas Grass' first new growth of the season

Erianthus ravennae 'Hardy Pampas Grass' finally waking up

This Hardy Pampas Grass has a looooong way to go if it's going to reach 8 to 14 feet tall by the end of summer!

In other news, my 'Northwind' switchgrass got majorly flooded when we had a sudden torrential thunderstorm with downpour. This grass is a winner, so I'm sure it will be fine.

Panicum virgatum 'Northwind' Switch Grass going for a swim

This black erosion barrier is an eye sore but it's keeping the mud out of our storm drain until everyone else's yard gets grass

Which Ornamental Grasses Wake Up in April?

I guess I didn't realize it, but I've collected a pretty good variety of ornamental grasses in under 1 year at my house. I have Hardy Pampas Grass, Karl Foerster Feather Reed Grass, Northwind Switchgrass, and Blue Fescue. Two of these so far are showing signs of life and two are not at this point in April.

I was starting to get worried because I got most of these in the fall. Then I read this article and it jogged my memory about cool season and warm season grasses - that explains it! Cool season grasses emerge early in spring, grow rapidly, and fruit sooner. Warm season grasses, not surprisingly, emerge later and keep growing and fruiting into the fall.

The article even says "Don’t be alarmed and think they’ve died off during the winter. Many warm season ornamental grasses don’t get going until after the spring bulbs have faded." Whew! Because my warm season grasses aren't even thinking about waking up at this point!

My cool season grasses are Karl Foerster and Blue Fescue, and my warm season grasses are Hardy Pampas Grass and Northwind Switchgrass.

Feather Reed Grass 'Karl Foerster' Calamagrostis acutiflora - April 4, 2015

Blue Fescue - Festuca glauca 'Elijah Blue' April 5, 2015 - I transplanted this from my shaded side yard and divided it. It's barely hanging on. It lasted all winter with really no chance to root in, so hopefully it grows quickly.

I love the look of Blue Fescue, it's so tempting to just go to Lowe's and buy another one that's already-amazing looking and fully-grown. I'm left with these brown stubs, and some seedlings that I'm waiting until no chance of frost to put outside. All this time waiting just to save $7...

Moving on to the warm season grasses, there's not really much to talk about - they're just dried husks at this point. I really would think they were dead if I hadn't read that article.

 Hardy Pampas Grass - Erianthus ravennae, April 5, 2015

 Panicum virgatum 'Northwind' Switch Grass - April 5, 2015

My First Dry Flower Arrangement: Karl Foerster, Annabelle Hydrangea, Hardy Pampas Grass

So this is my first attempt to create a dried flower arrangement using the 'fruits' of my tiny backyard. Our guest bathroom was missing something - it's a green and brown palette - and I thought a dried arrangement would be a good fit.

I started with just a few stalks of the Karl Foerster feather reed grass (I want to type Karl Forrester so bad but I know it's Foerster). I'm going to try to tag each of my plants as keywords like this: [Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Karl Foerster']. The feather reed grass by itself was pretty weak, so I added a couple dried hydrangea [Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'].

Dried Calamagrostis acutiflora 'Karl Foerster' feather reed grass

Dried Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle'

I bought a Hardy Pampas Grass [Erianthus ravennae] on sale at Lowe's this Fall, and it only had 2 fruiting stalks of feathery seeds. I was debating leaving them up all winter, but I decided to chop them down and use them in the arrangement as well. These things are BIG so it added some much needed vertical height.

Dried Erianthus ravennae 'Hardy Pampas Grass'

Any tips? I think next time I will try a larger vase, and more hydrangea to create different vertical layers instead of just a few things at the base and two giant vertical stalks. Not bad for a first try!