Stipa arundinacea.

Stipa arundinacea.

Stipa arundinacea.

Stipa arundinacea.

Stipa arundinacea is one of my favorite nonnative landscape plants for our area. I like its copper coloration, its fountainlike shape, its toughess, its low maintenance, and the way its graceful stalks sway in the breeze. Not fussy about soil, light, or water, and drought and deer tolerant, it grows to about three feet all around. It’s said to self-sow, but my mine have not shown much sign of that.  The one shown above is growing in a fairly small container, and I’m planning to up pot it. The green bit on the left of that photo is dietes, the purple in the background is rosemary. Right is detail of another specimen, which has been growing in the ground in the front garden for several years and still looks great.