Pink muhly grass

Pink muhly grass is a Southeastern native that spends the summer as a neat 2 foot mound of fine, wiry, dark green leaves and then, in October, throws up a cloud of pink flowers you can see from the street. The plumes fade to tan and stand through winter. It takes heat, humidity, drought and poor soil, deer ignore it, and it has almost no pests. It is a fall moment worth building a sunny planting around.

In the Upstate

It is hardy through our winters with room to spare, in the ground or in a pot. It is a warm-season grass, so Clemson’s timing is spring planting, and it needs a full sunny season to build the fall show. It is green and quiet from May to September, so it needs company that blooms earlier. Cut it to a few inches in late winter before new growth. One new pest to know: the muhly grass mealybug, first found in South Carolina in 2018, shows as white fuzz on the leaves from late spring on, so check nursery plants before you buy.

In a container

In a planter it is the height, 2 to 3 feet, and in October the whole point of the pot. Give it a big container, because a plant that reaches 3 feet wide in bloom wants root room. Water a pot weekly in summer once it is established, more in a hot spell, and the plume will be fuller for it. It does not need swapping mid-season, and the dried plumes can stay up until you cut the whole thing back in February.

Care

Water to establish, then mostly leave it alone. It needs very little fertilizer, and extra nitrogen makes floppy stems. Cut back to the ground in late winter, and divide in early spring every three or four years when the center thins. The one thing that kills it is shade: in less than six hours of sun it lives but barely blooms, and a muhly with no plume is just a tuft of grass. Wet, heavy soil in winter is the other risk.