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Pennisetum species/cultivars |
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| Common name |
fountain grass |
| Family |
poaceae |
| Life cycle |
perennial  |
| Light |
sun |
Popular ornamental grasses. Our current garden started with a few red ones that arrived without a particular name. After we installed our waterfall pond, we planted six of them behind the stream in the back; within a couple of months, they had grown into a grand line of burgundy, waving in the wind. These persisted through early winter, but were done in by a hard January freeze; they refused to return even from the roots. We replaced one of them with a different pennisetum variety ('Princess Caroline'), with even darker leaves with white-fuzzy hairs.
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| | Young 'Princess Caroline' |
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| I didn't realize when I planted Caroline quite how big she'd get. Over the next six years, she grabbed ever more space behind the pond, with foliage rising to over seven feet tall. In years with hard freezes, all of the top growth dies back, but it has returned even through the few polar vortices that recent years have tossed in our direction. Its color echoes that of the crinum that now dominates the filtration bog at the back of our pond (just visible in the right of the photo below) – a happy coincidence.
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In our garden, this plant grows in the following area: About my plant portraits
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Last modified:
June 07, 2025
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