Bunny Tail Grass

I bought this plant as seed from Park Seed on a Lark. Is anyone familiar with it? What is its life cycle? If I keep watering it will it continue to live or just turn brown, because it's cycle is over.

I bought it considering it to be an annual for the summer and mine has never gotten as tall as yours. It sure is cute, though, isn't it? :)

Susybell, I'm glad I'm not the only one who bought it. It is cute, and I also bought it for a summer annual, but the green parts especially the heads are now turning brown. This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago. That is why I was wondering if it was going to turn brown and blow back and forth in the wind. That would not really be a bad thing; it still would be cute.

Hmm... mine's still green. A few of the seed heads looked kind of brown when they were drying out after some rain, but now they look fluffy and white again. So, I don't know what to tell you. Seems like this is still kind of early to decline? Or maybe not in Z4?

Yes, that is the question. Is it too early to decline. When did you start yours? I started the seed indoors around the middle of April. Maybe mine is just older than your plants, or the clay pots are making it too hard to keep it watered well enough to maintain it.

Hmmm... Here's a picture of mine. I bought mine as a 4" start in May. I'm beginning to wonder if it's just short-lived or benefits from a little "mowing". I went outside to look at mine and realized it's browning up some as well. I've had it in a group of planters so hadn't really noticed the edges. My tag does say "drought tolerant", so now I'm wondering if I'm over-watering. I had to move it somewhere the background was dark enough to show up the "bunny tails"

I had some last year. They lasted past August for me. It's an annual, in my zone at least.

Hi Enya,
So how long did yours last? What did it do when it died off? Did it just gradually turn brown or freeze on the first frost?

Susybell, yours almost looks like a different plant than mine. I'm thinking that yours may get more sun so that is why it is shorter. It does not have to stretch as much. It looks very nice.

Hoya,

That's funny! I've been thinking that mine is TOO short and that yours looked more like a real grass! It has been in full sun, so I just moved it to more shade to see if it would get a little taller. I'm also going to water it a little less and see what happens. This year has been an experiment, but I think it would make a cute border edge,or near-border behind some very short flowers for next year. I'm not terribly patient when it comes to seeds. Were they easy to start?

They were very easy to start. It is funny when they germinate, there is one very tiny fine grass blade that pops up. I thought at the time that there is no way that it will amount to anything, but they grown very fast. I think that it is a fun and worthwhile plant to start from seed. There are probably enough seed in the package to end up with at least 50 pots worth. If I were more ambitious, I would try to save seed from the plants that I have this year to plant for next.

Oh, good to know! I'm encouraged! I looked it up in PF and someone says that they save the whole seed head and plant it and have had better luck with that. At least that's big enough that I won't lose them or forget what it is! No one has said that this is a grass that's had a bad self-seeding problem, so that's good news, too. I like it but don't want it everywhere.

Mine dried out and still looked good with those bunny tails. So I did not cut it, but left in the ground.
It went under the snow and that was the last I saw it.

I like the idea of saving the seed head and planting the whole thing. I'm a big grass nut, and I love tall grasses all dried out blowing in the wind even with snow on the ground.

That does sound pretty! I don't get much snow. Everything gets green, gray, and drippy. I still like grasses, though! They have such a different feel in the yard compared to the old-fashioned shrubs I have so I'm changing things around to make the grasses look good.

I love this grass! I wintersowed it - and had great germination. Mine's still looking good so far. I'm going to do a lot more of it next year to use in containers.

Joanne