My pampas grass took a big hit during 2 weeks of ice and snow this past winter. A lot of it turned black and died while parts are still green. How do I fix this? I live in Virginia Beach and we had 2 back to back hard weeks of snow and ice. How do I heal this plant? It looks terrible but has some green to it.
This has been a recurring question for us this spring with visitors to Gardening Know How.
Pampas grass seems to have been hit hard with the cold winter that most of the United States suffered.
You could feed a balanced fertilizer to help boost some of the signs of regrowth.
Your Pampas will likely recover but it just will take time.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/pampas-grass/growing-pampas-grass.htm
My pampas grass will not bloom any plumes. What is wrong with it? Or what can I do to help it to bloom?
Grasses that fail to flower in spite of good growing sites may be exposed to excess nitrogen. This promotes growth of foliage and minimizes formation of plumes. To correct an issue of no plumes on ornamental grass due to too much nitrogen, offset it with some high phosphorous fertilizer. Bone meal is a good fertilizer in this case.
Grasses that are cut back at the wrong time of the year will also fail to flower. For most ornamental grasses, the best time for cutting is in spring, but in milder climates, you may also prune in fall. Do not cut them back in summer, as the forming flower stalks will be removed.
Another factor that prevents flowering is age. Very young starts will not flower until mature. This may be up to three years after planting. Old plants can also fail to form plumes. Much like any perennial plant, flowering slows down as the crown gets old. You may also find that the plant is thinner and grows fewer blades. The solution is division early in the season.
My two alpacas got into my backyard and rubbed themselves all over my 5 pampas grass plants. They were scratching their backs with the sharp leaves. BUT now my pampas grass is not standing up anymore but appears all squashed down. It is still green. How can I revive it so it will begin to grow tall again?
As long as it is still green, it should recover just fine. If, however, the plant show signs of browning (or yelowing), I would prune it out. Thes plants are normally pruned back to the ground each year anyway, so if you have to resort to this, it will not hurt the plant.
I just recently purchased some white and red pampas grass. I knew that gallon containers should be planted at least 6-8' apart since pampas grass grows quite large. The plants I purchased are 6-8" tall. Should I plant 2 together or plant each one next to each other or several feet apart? Any advice will be welcomed.
This article will give you guidelines on how to plant your pampas grass:
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/pampas-grass/growing-pampas-grass.htm
Basically you will want to plant your clumps of pampas grass at least 6" apart.
Happy gardening!
How can you kill pampas grass plants?
This article should help with getting rid of pampas grass: https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/pampas-grass/pampas-grass-removal.htm
It is not producing feathery plumes but has grown quite large. We planted it two years ago and it has grown large and bushy and looks healthy. What should we do? We have it in the front garden, full sun in the morning. We live in Cramlington.
This could be an issue with to much Nitrogen in the soil. This will cause lush greens and little or not flowering.
Adding Phosphorous will help with flowering and Bone Meal is a good way to dot this.
Here are some links with more information.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/pampas-grass/growing-pampas-grass.htm
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/soil-fertilizers/bone-meal-fertilizer.htm
Ours was very healthy looking for several years but has started to die out with only a few healthy shoots and plumes remaining.
There can be a few reasons for your plant loss. Drought can greatly effect Pampas Grass, and it does need water during dry times.
The plant sometimes will die off from the center if it is to tightly growing together.
Also I should mention that we had numerous reports this spring and summer of Pampas Grass struggling after the long harsh winter the nearly the entire US suffered. This certainly may be some of the effects you are also seeing.
Here is a link to refresh you on the care requirements. Pruning back may help rejuvenate you plants.
https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/ornamental/foliage/pampas-grass/growing-pampas-grass.htm