Muhly Grass Pink

Description

Botanical Name:    Muhlenbergia capillaris

Common Name:    Pink Muhly grass

Description:    Beautiful, fast-growing, Florida native ornamental grass that blooms pink fluffy plumes in the fall. This easy to grow grass likes sun or part sun areas in your garden, meadow, or prairie. It adapts to both dry or moist areas, so it can be put in your rain garden, meadow or prairie, and your regular garden environment. Is drought tolerant after being established but looks best with regular water. Will get 3-4 feet tall and wide with the plumes about 1-2 feet taller. It has a beautiful arching habit. Its slender leaves/stems and the flower plumes turn brown in the winter, which to me is a pretty architectural statement on its own.

The faded seed heads feed the birds in the winter, so please leave them be. You have three choices as to how to care for them: You can simply do some cleaning out of the old growth when the new growth shows back up in the spring. Or, in early February, you can prune the whole plant back to about 1 foot from the ground. However, they do not have to be cleaned out or pruned for them to continue growing beautifully. Nobody is out there pruning them in their native habitats, and they still manage to look gorgeous. They can be divided every four or five years when the clumps get large.

Is deer resistant. Muhly grass attracts ladybugs, which puts it in the category for your Integrated Pest Management plants. It forms a low canopy that small animals can use for shelter and refuge.

It occurs naturally in coastal grasslands, hammocks and strands, beach dunes, sandhills, and pine flatwood. Its clumping habit provides excellent cover for wildlife. Likes to grow in clay, lime rock, and sandy soils.

Tolerant of occasional/brief inundation of salt water flooding such as can occur in storm surges. Mildly tolerant of salty wind and spray.

This plant in 1-gallon containers is 1-2′ tall.

This plant in 2.5-gallon/3-gallon containers is 2-3′ tall.

Plant Lore: The genus name Muhlenbergia honors German-American amateur botanist Gotthilf Heinrich Ernst Muhlenberg (1753-1815). The species epithet capillaris is from the Latin capillus, or “hair,” and aris, which means “of or pertaining to.” It may refer to the fine, hairlike appearance of the inflorescence or the capillary- or tube-like form of the panicle branches or leaves.

Florida Hardiness Zones 8 – 10