Miscanthus x giganteus

Miscanthus x giganteus is a giant clumping hybrid grass that grows to fourteen feet every year in my garden (pictured) like a columnar fountain of foliage. It’s kind of like a decidous bamboo in terms of its contribution to the garden. In late fall in some years it sports typical plumes at the top of the culms. Interestingly, because of its rapid growth this hybrid is being grown commercially as a biomass fuel to produce clean and affordable electricity and heat. Deer resistant.

A gift from Punnett accepted with some trepidation, I've seen the immense 14' clumps in his garden; this thing needs room. Old stems make fine bamboo like stakes. ZONE 5

A Winter dormant, clumping, perennial grass and perhaps the most dynamic and useful plant you can have in your garden. Emerging in August the cane like stems, bearing 2cm wide, gracefully arching, grassy leaves, reach by late January 2m or more, to then be topped by feathery plumes on 60cm long stalks. One of my favourite plants. In spring each year I am amazed at how each day the lush growth gains height, in summer I love it's towering presence and the rustle of the leaves in the wind, in autumn for it's change of coat as a backdrop for just about everything and in winter for it's unadorned verticality and lack thereof when I finally reduce it to nothing. Cut down in late autumn or leave the naked, straw coloured, stems for winter interest, to be cut down as the new growth emerges. Unlike most Miscanthus in our climate M. x giganteus does go completely Winter dormant. The cut stems are an excellent long lasting mulch and make great light duty garden stakes, as we use in the nursery. In other parts of the world it is used for many purposes, from making biodegradable pots to fuelling power plants.