Cortaderia selloana Silver Feather (‘Notcort’)
Words: Graham Rice
In the four years since the trial of Cortaderia (pampas grass) was planted at Wisley it has captured a lot of attention. Some of the plants are so huge, for one thing, but there’s more to it than that.
One of the 10 plants which received an Award of Garden Merit (AGM) was Cortaderia selloana Silver Feather (‘Notcort’) and it shows the fine quality in both flowers and foliage that make this trial so interesting. I discussed this plant, and ‘Evita’, another outstanding AGM winner on my trials blog in November 2009.
Firstly, Silver Feather develops into a manageable plant. Some of those in the trial are so enormous that they would completely overwhelm most gardens, but Silver Feather reaches no more than about 2m in height. It would make a splendid garden specimen.
The foliage is good, too, its slender silver variegation creating an overall greyish effect. The panel assessing the trial also noted that although there was a little browning to the tips of the leaves in mid-summer, in general the leaves keep their quality very well.
But Silver Feather is also outstanding in flower. As the panel noted in 2008, “plumes looking fantastic, clean, silky cream, erect, well held… pale stems an asset.” The plumes begin to emerge in early September, are at their peak in October and will often still be holding well in February the following year.
One feature of the flowering that especially strikes me is the length of stem between the foliage and plume is quite short so that the base of each plume is held just in the top of the leaves. This makes for a compact yet elegant plant.
Cortaderia selloana Silver Feather (‘Notcort’) was introduced by Notcutts Nurseries in the early 1990s. It arose in tissue culture as a variegated sport of a plant in the C. selloana Pumila Group.