By now we have established that the majority of us love ornamental grasses. Their movement, fine texture and minimal maintenance leave little to be desired. And with so many types available, you may choose from an array of grays, greens, blues, reds and even pinks to fulfill and accent garden features.
One in particular — a floaty, rosy variety called pink muhly grass (Muhlenbergia capillaris) — generates some of the finest autumn garden colour, leaving the landscape blushing with pride.
Botanical name: Muhlenbergia capillaris
Common names: Pink muhly grass, pink hair grass, gulf muhly, hairawn muhly
USDA zones: 6 to 9 (find your zone)
Water requirement:Low; grows larger with additional irrigation
Light requirement:Full sun to partial shade
Mature size: 3 ft tall and 6 ft wide
Benefits and tolerances: Drought, bull, warmth and salt-spray tolerant
Seasonal attention: Ornamental evergreen foliage; flowers late summer to fall
When to plant: Sow seeds or divide in spring.
D-CRAIN Design and Construction
Distinguishing traits. Evergreen from the low desert, pink muhly is a warm-season grass with an annual autumnal extravaganza. In late summer or autumn, a mist of pink blossoms blankets the tips of the blades, bringing up the plant 2 feet longer.
Pink muhly grows vertical, as well as other grass textures accentuate the movement of pink muhly practically glamorized it, making a humming pink blur. After flowering for many months, the grass ‘seeds that are consequent tan the grass before self-sowing.
Pat Brodie Landscape Design
Pink grows from the foreground of the garden. The mounding growth that is green characterizes the plant when it’s not in bloom.
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How to use it. Pink muhly’s fine texture is a powerful landscape softener. Notice attractively muhly highlights the sculptural agave inside this landscape by Construction and D-Crain Design.
Pink muhly grass is native to the East Coast of the USA, so many native plantings integrate it to prairies, savannas and coastal dunes. Planted en masse, pink muhly blurs where this garden within the fence ends and that of the outside begins, bridging maintained and wild landscapes.
Shirley Bovshow
Or use the grass as a accent, as designer Shirley Bovshow has done here, by planting smaller clumps through the garden.
D-CRAIN Design and Construction
Planting notes. Pink muhly’s tolerance of many soil types is notable. However, this grass appreciates moist but well-drained soil in a sunny to partly shady part of your garden.
It is drought tolerant once established but will develop fuller and flourish more with irrigation. Pink muhly clumps, therefore it won’t invade different beds and may be split to make additional plants. Cut the grass down in late winter, after it’s completed flowering, to allow for new growth in spring.
See more guides to great design crops