The annual removal of a beauty, too soon

I grow many different types of ornamental grasses, even if you don't count the bamboo (which is in the grass family). I look forward to seeing their inflorescences each year, as they're so beautiful, often fuzzy, and add so much texture and motion to the garden. Some of the grasses "flower" early in the summer, but most hold off until mid-summer or early fall.

One grass I really watch out for is the 'Moudry' fountain grass. It produces some of the nicest dark "plumes" that are definitely worth seeing, but I keep watch for another reason.

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I watch for these because they produce tons of viable seed, and will reseed in the lawn.

I've been dealing with this issue for a few years, and still haven't gotten all of the seedlings out of my lawn:

So I let the fuzzy tufts stay around for a week or two, then unfortunately have to cut them down.

This year I decided to gather a bunch of these and put them in a vase in the house.

I don't know why I didn't think of this before this year -- it would have been nice to have been able to enjoy these dark fuzzy seed factories for a bit more time.

I was mainly concerned about the cats messing with them, as they seem to do something to almost any plant cutting I bring into the house (they especially love the bamboo cuttings, which look fantastic in a vase). One cat did take a few bites, but after a couple days just ignored them.


I've thought about just removing this plant from the garden, but it's just too pretty for that. I'll just continue to be vigilant and remove the seed heads before they can drop more seed...

...and hope that I haven't waited too long before cutting them down.

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