Cortaderia selloana 'Pumila'
Grasses are a great group of plants to use for autumnal texture and movement. One of the last to come into flower is Cortaderia selloana 'Pumila', which produces fantastic silvery plumes that erupt from the base of the plant, through the foliage. At RHS Garden Hyde Hall we use this pampas grass on the Dry Garden, where it survives the tough conditions because it is slightly stouter and more compact than most other pampas grasses, so it is able to stand up to the exposed location very well.
Vital statistics
- Common name
- Pampas grass
- Family
- Poaceae
- Height & spread
- Up to 1.5m (5ft) tall x 1.2m (4ft) wide.
- Form
- Perennial grass
- Soil
- Fertile and well drained
- Aspect
- Full sun
- Hardiness
- Hardy throughout the British Isles
Cortaderia
Pampas grass forms large dense tussocks of stiff, flat and narrow leaves that often have rough or sharp margins. The foliage can be variously coloured but are mainly glaucous green with a few cultivars showing variegation running the length of the leaf.
Pampas grass is commonly grown for the magnificent seed heads produced each summer. These are stout-stemmed, plume-like, silver, gold or pale rose-pink flower panicles, which are often used to provide height to a border and are popularly used in decorative dried cut flower arrangements.
The genus name Cortaderia comes from the Argentinean and Spanish word cortar, to cut, because of the sharp leaf margins that can cause lacerations. Cortaderia is commonly called pampas grass as it is a major constituent of the vegetation in the humid pampas grasslands of the Argentinean Pampean Sierras.
Cortaderia is a genus of about 23 species of evergreen or semi-evergreen, perennial grasses found in New Zealand, New Guinea and South America.
Cortaderia selloana 'Pumila'
Cortaderia selloana, a native of Brazil, Argentina and Chile, is the most well known Cortaderia species after being a popular ornamental grass of the Victorian era.
Many cultivars of Cortaderia selloana have been bred of varying sizes and with beautifully coloured silky, silver flower spikes that are often pink or purple flushed. C. selloana 'Pumila' AGM is one of the smaller cultivars with mid-green leaves and masses of erect, silvery yellow plumes up to 1.5m (5ft) high.
Cultivation
- Pampas grass grows well on a range of soil types but thrives in a fertile, well-drained soil in full sun.
- After time the tussocks can become very large and congested with old, dead foliage.
- Cutting back and combing regularly in late winter or spring should minimise the dead foliage and keep the tussock compact.
- Because of its sharp leaf margins pampas grass was commonly burnt in its native habitat to control its spread, but in the garden burning can be dangerous not only for the gardener but because pampas grass is a favourite place for hedgehogs to hibernate.
- Pests and diseases do not trouble Cortaderia selloana.
Propagation
AGM
The RHS Herbaceous Plant Committee awarded Cortaderia selloana 'Pumila' an Award of Garden Merit and described it as:
"A perennial, evergreen grass forming a compact clump of narrow, arching dark green leaves to 45cm long. Silky creamy-white plumes freely borne on stems to 1.2m tall."