Pennisetum flaccidum

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Price:  £6.00 –+ Add to Basket Brand:  The Plantsman's Preference Family:  Poaceae Main Season:  Summer Flower Colour:  Purple Leaf Colour:  Green Foliage:  Deciduous Position:  Sun Soil Type:  Ordinary, medium loam Height:  1.2m to 1.8m (4' to 6') Peat Free?  Yes Hardiness Guide:  RHS H7 minimum at least -20C Pot Size:  1L Availability:      Approx. 2 in stock View our Pot Size guide:

One of the hardiest fountain grasses but also invasive so best contained. Beautiful upright stems topped with purple spikes before turning russet-buff in autumn. Any soil in sun or part shade. 1.5m.

This is one of those plants that sells on sight in flower but we always warn people that it is a real spreader - 1.5m in a season in good soil!  So, it's best grown in a pot or other contained area where you can keep an eye on it.  It does make a very good pot plant.  Pennisetum flaccidum can also be grown in the open ground in very poor soils, such as a mix of soil and rubble or other aggregates which will considerably slow it's spread.

Excellent flowers from June or July until the autumn, like a completely hardy version of Pennisetum macrourum but with glistening purple colour to start with.

From the Middle East, through Asia, as far as China and the Russian Far East.

Sometimes sold as Pennisetum incomptum, P. incomptum purple form or P. flaccidum purple form - we've grown all of them and can't see any difference.