Plants/landscaping question

[buckpasser]

These two species are planted around the lodge at the plantation I manage. It looks like we are ditching our landscaping company and either doing the maintenance in-house, or hiring temp labor a few times a year to put out fresh straw/prune plants. Either way I need to educate myself on proper procedure.

Questions: what is this grass species? What is the proper procedure to maintain it? It’s getting huge and crowded in places!

Question: what is the proper way to prune a “bottle brush” plant? They are getting to be trees now and I’m hoping to hear how to best control them, or if they just require replacing occasionally.

Thank you!



Bottlebrush:

 

[NCHillbilly]

The grass in the first pic looks like Chinese Miscanthus. It's horribly invasive. My recommendation to maintain it is to kill it. Yesterday. As for the bottlebrush, I would just limb it up about head high and let it be a small tree.

 

[GAEngineer]

The grass in the first pic looks like Chinese Miscanthus. It's horribly invasive. My recommendation to maintain it is to kill it. Yesterday. As for the bottlebrush, I would just limb it up about head high and let it be a small tree.

I agree.
Miscanthus sinensis - I would remove it. There are native ornamental grasses if you are trying to maintain the same aesthetic, such as:

Bluestem - Schizachyrium scoparium
Muhly Grass - Muhlenbergia capillaris
Switch Grass - Panicum virgatum
White-Top Sedge - Rhynchospora latifolia
Sugarcane Grass - Saccharum giganteum

 

[buckpasser]

The grass in the first pic looks like Chinese Miscanthus. It's horribly invasive. My recommendation to maintain it is to kill it. Yesterday. As for the bottlebrush, I would just limb it up about head high and let it be a small tree.

It has that cogon grass look for sure, but unless the seeds are viable it’s not going anywhere as the lodge is surrounded by agricultural fields. I doubt I have the budget or manpower to totally replace as that stuff is EVERYWHERE! Would it typically just be cut off like other decorative grasses? Just leave it? It’s around 5’ tall and shoulder to shoulder in some beds. Maybe 3’ diameter.

 

[NCHillbilly]

It has that cogon grass look for sure, but unless the seeds are viable it’s not going anywhere as the lodge is surrounded by agricultural fields. I doubt I have the budget or manpower to totally replace as that stuff is EVERYWHERE! Would it typically just be cut off like other decorative grasses? Just leave it? It’s around 5’ tall and shoulder to shoulder in some beds. Maybe 3’ diameter.

Oh, it has viable seeds. I've seen literally hundreds of acres taken over by it. And yeah, you can cut it back to the ground or close to it for the winter. The grass in the second pic looks like pink muhly grass. It's native, and makes a good landscape plant.

 

[GAEngineer]

It has that cogon grass look for sure, but unless the seeds are viable it’s not going anywhere as the lodge is surrounded by agricultural fields. I doubt I have the budget or manpower to totally replace as that stuff is EVERYWHERE! Would it typically just be cut off like other decorative grasses? Just leave it? It’s around 5’ tall and shoulder to shoulder in some beds. Maybe 3’ diameter.

Prune in the spring. Pruning in the winter exposes the crown to the weather. You can cut it back pretty hard in the spring - nearly all the way to the ground. If they are as big as you say you might consider halving the crown and tossing it.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I agree.
Miscanthus sinensis - I would remove it. There are native ornamental grasses if you are trying to maintain the same aesthetic, such as:

Bluestem - Schizachyrium scoparium
Muhly Grass - Muhlenbergia capillaris
Switch Grass - Panicum virgatum
White-Top Sedge - Rhynchospora latifolia
Sugarcane Grass - Saccharum giganteum

Prairie dropseed is another good one. The switchgrass cultivars are good in the landscape, but the straight species can take over in a hurry.

 

[GAEngineer]

It has that cogon grass look for sure, but unless the seeds are viable it’s not going anywhere as the lodge is surrounded by agricultural fields. I doubt I have the budget or manpower to totally replace as that stuff is EVERYWHERE! Would it typically just be cut off like other decorative grasses? Just leave it? It’s around 5’ tall and shoulder to shoulder in some beds. Maybe 3’ diameter.

Budget shouldn't be an issue, you have free plants right there: the muhly grass should be divided every 4-5 years. You can replace the invasives with the plants you already have while you are doing the recommended maintenance on those plants.

Otherwise yes, treat it like any other garden grass. If cold weather is not an issue then you can prune winter - if youre in an area with a lot of freeze hours consider waiting until spring.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Prune in the spring. Pruning in the winter exposes the crown to the weather. You can cut it back pretty hard in the spring - nearly all the way to the ground. If they are as big as you say you might consider halving the crown and tossing it.

You aren't going to kill the Miscanthus by pruning it now. You can cut it back here where it gets below zero in the winter, and it comes right back.

 

[2dye4]

I once had a neighbor that every years would tie a string around the bottom and cut below the string with a chainsaw at ground level and burn it.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I once had a neighbor that every years would tie a string around the bottom and cut below the string with a chainsaw at ground level and burn it.

Hedge shears work great for deadheading stuff like that, too.

 

[buckpasser]

Hedge shears work great for deadheading stuff like that, too.

I didn’t see the crew do it last year but I wondered if they used hedge trimmers, weed eater, or other. They cut them almost perfectly flat topped. That was the good grass. I don’t recall them cutting the Chinese stuff.

 

[NCHillbilly]

I didn’t see the crew do it last year but I wondered if they used hedge trimmers, weed eater, or other. They cut them almost perfectly flat topped. That was the good grass. I don’t recall them cutting the Chinese stuff.

The Chinese stuff sucks. Roundup is your friend.

 

[killerv]

I'd remove some of the lower limbs on the bottle brush just see a little more trunk down there and any touching the lodge at the backside and leave it be. I hate trees that have to lose their natural form every year because someone decided it would good idea to plant them too close to a structure years ago. It's not natural. Crepe myrtles are also prime examples of being put in bad spots in landscapes and they suffer for it by getting whacked every year