I germinated seed purchased from Onalee, had very good germination rates. Already a pretty grass at about 4 inches tall, and starting to ...Read Moredevelop the pleating.I have seen some reports of this surviving zone 7 but not going to get my hopes up too high. I will try 2 ways of overwintering. 1 leave it in the ground with about a foot of leaf mulch, and 2 dig up and toss the root balls in plastic bags with a few holes punched, and store under my house with the Orinoco Bananas and other tropicals in winter. I will update after testing in my zone 7a outdoors next winter.
Highly invasive in the Hawaiian Islands. Forms dense cover in the understory of mesic to wet forests, crowding out and suppressing the re...Read Moregeneration of native vegetation.
Beautiful grasses when blooming or not blooming. Had it growing in part shade. It took a hard hit last winter and i totally lost one pl...Read Moreant, but the other has come back some. Moved some seedlings to full sun but so far they are not doing that well. Hope the mother plant comes back to its former glory. Will try some in a shadier area and see how they might fill in under some old holly.
Jacksonville, FL (Zone 8b) | August 2012 | neutral
Makes a very dramatic, arching clump for landscapes, but it reseeds very freely and can be invasive. I try to cut the flower heads off i...Read Moren late summer when it blooms, but I still get seedlings popping up within about 25 ft of any clump of Setaria palmifolia.
I bought four small plants from Revlar Farms in Aug 08. They thrived and have tripled in size. I do not water them too much, I do not wan...Read Moret them to take over the flower bed. I am beginning to think I will need to move a couple of them with their babies later this fall. Beautiful when in bloom.
Pasadena, CA (Zone 9b) | September 2009 | positive
Grows beatifully in shade to part sun here in Pasadena (rather dry Zone 9b), with average to little water. Can get a little rangy in ful...Read Morel shade, but will fill out when cut back. Beautiful understory plant - surprised it is not even in the Sunset Western Garden Book. Seems an ideal shade plant for the West.
Update: 2011
I find that it is not a choice plant for the West because it is not as suited to our dry summers. It gets big and sparse, unless you cut it back twice a year, then you have to deal with the blank spot in the garden. I underplanted it (yes, underplanted - it is that big) with Chlorphytum comosum (spider plant) to alleviate this problem. It is a beautiful plant. It is just better suited to the warm, humid East. That said, I still like it enough to soldier on with it! It is very tough, and can take some neglect and lower water than I at first expected. Easy to divide and spread.. Just split it in half with a shovel and move half of the plant to another shaded or partially shaded area.
I germinated seed purchased from Onalee, had very good germination rates. Already a pretty grass at about 4 inches tall, and starting to ...Read More
Highly invasive in the Hawaiian Islands. Forms dense cover in the understory of mesic to wet forests, crowding out and suppressing the re...Read More
Beautiful grasses when blooming or not blooming. Had it growing in part shade. It took a hard hit last winter and i totally lost one pl...Read More
Makes a very dramatic, arching clump for landscapes, but it reseeds very freely and can be invasive. I try to cut the flower heads off i...Read More
I bought four small plants from Revlar Farms in Aug 08. They thrived and have tripled in size. I do not water them too much, I do not wan...Read More
Grows beatifully in shade to part sun here in Pasadena (rather dry Zone 9b), with average to little water. Can get a little rangy in ful...Read More