A compact clumping grass whose fine, dark green blades disappear under clouds of pink-purple plumes each fall. Backlit by low sun, it glows. Often sold alongside deer grass, it is actually pink muhly, a smaller relative.
Living with it in the Phoenix Valley
Watering
Follow the shrub schedule in our Landscape Care guide. It can get by on very little, but deep summer soaks keep it fuller and improve the fall show.
Pruning
Leave the plumes standing through early winter, then cut the clump nearly to the ground in late winter, around February, before new growth starts. Mature clumps can be divided in early spring.
Bermuda grass
Keep Bermuda out of the clump. Once it invades, it is very hard to remove and smothers the plant.
How our designers use it
Fall color
Few desert plants put on a fall show. Massed, it turns a bed into a pink haze.
Backlighting
Our designers place it where morning or evening sun shines through the plumes, on the east or west side of a view.
With bold forms
Its soft texture contrasts with agaves, barrel cactus and boulders.
Good to know
Around the pool
Plumes and old blades shed lightly in wind. It is low risk but best set a few feet back from the edge.
