Plant, Tree & Shrub Library

Brand:  Monrovia

Description:

Attractive silver-green foliage and beautiful arching gold-brown seed heads sway in the wind creating fine texture in the garden; perfect for naturalized landscapes and great in containers

Ornamental Features

Pixie Fountain Tufted Hair Grass is primarily grown for its highly ornamental fruit. The gold seed heads are carried on showy plumes with brown variegation, which are displayed in abundance from mid summer to late fall. It features delicate spikes of white flowers with silver overtones rising above the foliage from early to mid summer. The flowers are excellent for cutting. Its grassy leaves remain green in color with showy silver variegation throughout the year.

Landscape Attributes

Pixie Fountain Tufted Hair Grass is an open herbaceous evergreen perennial with a mounded form. It brings an extremely fine and delicate texture to the garden composition and should be used to full effect.

This is a relatively low maintenance plant, and is best cleaned up in early spring before it resumes active growth for the season. It has no significant negative characteristics.

Pixie Fountain Tufted Hair Grass is recommended for the following landscape applications;

• Mass Planting
• General Garden Use
• Groundcover
• Naturalizing And Woodland Gardens
• Container Planting

Planting & Growing

Pixie Fountain Tufted Hair Grass will grow to be about 18 inches tall at maturity extending to 24 inches tall with the flowers, with a spread of 24 inches. Its foliage tends to remain dense right to the ground, not requiring facer plants in front. It grows at a medium rate, and under ideal conditions can be expected to live for approximately 10 years. As an evegreen perennial, this plant will typically keep its form and foliage year-round.

This plant does best in full sun to partial shade. It prefers to grow in average to moist conditions, and shouldn't be allowed to dry out. It is not particular as to soil type, but has a definite preference for acidic soils. It is somewhat tolerant of urban pollution. Consider applying a thick mulch around the root zone in winter to protect it in exposed locations or colder microclimates. This is a selected variety of a species not originally from North America. It can be propagated by division; however, as a cultivated variety, be aware that it may be subject to certain restrictions or prohibitions on propagation.

Pixie Fountain Tufted Hair Grass is a fine choice for the garden, but it is also a good selection for planting in outdoor pots and containers. It can be used either as 'filler' or as a 'thriller' in the 'spiller-thriller-filler' container combination, depending on the height and form of the other plants used in the container planting. Note that when growing plants in outdoor containers and baskets, they may require more frequent waterings than they would in the yard or garden. Be aware that in our climate, most plants cannot be expected to survive the winter if left in containers outdoors, and this plant is no exception. Contact our experts for more information on how to protect it over the winter months.