{"id":1684,"date":"2012-04-21T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2012-04-21T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=1684"},"modified":"2011-12-03T13:17:28","modified_gmt":"2011-12-03T18:17:28","slug":"fountain-grasses-are-summer-sizzlers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2012\/04\/21\/fountain-grasses-are-summer-sizzlers\/","title":{"rendered":"Fountain Grasses Are Summer Sizzlers"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mceTemp mceIEcenter\">\n<dl id=\"attachment_1685\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 310px;\">\n<dt class=\"wp-caption-dt\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/IMG_1595.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1685  \" title=\"IMG_1595\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/IMG_1595-300x168.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/IMG_1595-300x168.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/IMG_1595-1024x575.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/dt>\n<dd class=\"wp-caption-dd\">Purple Pennisetum Grass in Hot Parking Lot<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n<p>Fountain grass (<em>Pennisetum setaceum<\/em> ) is a warm season grass native to Northern Africa (USDA zones 8-10). It is a dense clump-forming grass with several topnotch cultivars. Most popular are purple fountain grasses (varieties &#8216;Purpureum&#8217; and \u2018Rubrum\u2019) for their heat resistant dark reddish purple foliage. The pink to purplish pink foxtail plumes (flowers) rise above the dark colored foliage starting in mid-summer into early fall. Fountain grass averages 3-4 feet in height and 2-3 feet in spread. Some cultivars grow taller and wider.<\/p>\n<p>Fountain grass<em> <\/em>is the most popular annual grass planted in the Southern Appalachian gardens (USDA zones 6 and 7). It flourishes in full to partial sunlight <strong>(<\/strong>6-hours minimum) in average well-drained soils. Foliage and plume colors are more intense in full sun.<em> P. setaceum<\/em> is more drought tolerant than the \u201cother\u201d fountain grass (<em>P. alopecuriodes<\/em>), native from eastern Asia and west Australia.<\/p>\n<p>Spring planted fountain grasses establish rapidly and tolerate short dry spells in summer. Weekly irrigation is your best bet. Fertilize at planting time with a 5-6 month rated slow release fertilizer or feed monthly with water soluble Miracle-Gro\u2122, Schultz\u00ae, or a\u00a0comparable product according to package rates.<\/p>\n<p>Warm season grasses turn shades of brown as the weather turns colder in\u00a0late fall. Snow or ice encrusted ornamental grasses can be quite beautiful. You may opt to shear them back in early fall, as old floral heads (plumes)\u00a0tend to\u00a0self-seed.<\/p>\n<p>Fountain grasses stand out mixed with other perennials,\u00a0by themselves\u00a0in\u00a0enmass, or in planted in containers.\u00a0\u00a0They&#8217;re mostly disease and pest free as well as deer resistant.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"mceTemp mceIEcenter\">\u00a0<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Purple Pennisetum Grass in Hot Parking Lot Fountain grass (Pennisetum setaceum ) is a warm season grass native to Northern Africa (USDA zones 8-10). It is a dense clump-forming grass with several topnotch cultivars. Most popular are purple fountain grasses (varieties &#8216;Purpureum&#8217; and \u2018Rubrum\u2019) for their heat resistant dark reddish purple foliage. The pink to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[357,398,778,645,674,665,602,832,774,688,202,630,706,646,113],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1684"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2380,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1684\/revisions\/2380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}