This waving blonde grass is a great way of bringing a sense of movement to your garden. It looks great massed, and brings a beachy feel to the garden with its bleached straw-colored seedheads.

Nassella tenuissima does need to be cut to the ground once a year, but I’ve had great luck doing it at the end of the summer – it comes back just in time to perk up the winter garden. Give it full sun and 3’ of room.

Mexican Feather Grass usually gets pruned once yearly in September when they go kind of beige and dreadlock-y, and they come back gorgeously and make a fresh green winter accent for me. Cut the entire thing to 3” tall using your hedging shears.

(Check out this article from The Germinatrix with her take on pruning this Stipa!)

This grass can be invasive in some parts of the country because it does re-seed. Here in the coastal Pacific Northwest, it will often re-seed in a garden, but rarely become a pest, and I haven’t seen it in any wild areas. But in Southern CA, it is becoming a pest and so I’d check with your local agricultural extension before planting this lovely little grass to make sure it will actually be lovely for you.

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