Tough Spring for Ornamental Grasses

One consequence of our mainly cool spring is that a lot of plants seem to be a few weeks behind schedule in their growth. To me this seems most noticeable with ornamental grasses. This can be frustrating to a lot of gardeners who cut their grasses back in the spring and expect them to then start growing aggressively. A lot of the grasses I am seeing are showing anemic growth of their new blades this spring. This would include most of the Miscanthus, Pampas, little bluestem, and Pennisetum varieties. Switch grass also tends to be a late bloomer, so this year it is especially slow.
A couple of exceptions would be the Blue Avena and Feather Reed grasses, which don't seem to be too affected by the chilly weather. These are good grasses to consider if you're the impatient type.

                                                         Grow baby grow!




One thing to speed up the growth process on your ornamental grasses is to give them some fertilizer, as they will appreciate a good shot of nitrogen. Be careful not to overdo it however. Also, if they are a few years old, you can look at physically removing any dead shoots from the center of the plant. This will give new growth a little more room and also provide a stimulus to the the plant. The last option is to do nothing and as soon as we get some consistently warm weather they will eventually catch up.