Pink Feather Pampas Grass Plants

Cortaderia selloana 'Pink Feather' Pampas Grass - 2-Litre Pot-Grown Plants

Here's a feather for your cap: this pink pampas grass's tall candy floss pink flower stems are a great statement in the garden, and all you need to make lovely dry flower arrangements.

Browse all of our other grasses, or perennial plants.

Features

• Deciduous grass
• Large clump forming
• Big pink plume flowers on tall sturdy stems
• Great ornamental "hedge"
• Leaf edges are sharp
• Grows upright in full sun
• To 3m x 3m

Growing 'Pink Feather' Pampas Grass

Pampas grasses are really tough, and with your help will establish almost anywhere there is some soil. Their favourite soil is poorly fertile, tends towards dryness, and well drained. Full sun is best for encouraging sturdy upright growth. Plants grown in partial shade are fine, except they may flop slightly.

Like any grass, they benefit from being sheared down to low mounds, every late Winter or early Spring to make way for new growth. The leaves have rough edges that can slice your skin, so gloves and a jacket with a collar are recommended for chopping back mature plants.
Always wear eye protection, but watch out for cutting rather than poking with this plant.

Where it is safe to do so, burning down a mature pampas clump is the natural and easy way to tidy up in late winter, before new spring growth appears. However, fire will kill most animals hibernating inside, which is one reason the RHS no longer promotes the practice.

• Fire will stimulate new growth, and the ash provides a quick dose of fertility to start the year.
• Do not accelerate the fire with anything, let it burn naturally.
• Use a long-neck lighter to reach into the base and light the smallest, most flammable blades: if it is windy or not perfectly dry, a bunch of the pampas seedheads stuffed into the base will make the ignition easier.
• The whole clump should catch fire quickly, burning hot for a short time, and flames may briefly leap over twice the height of the grass. In really dry conditions, the tall flames will last about 1 minute, otherwise 2-3 minutes is normal.
  
• Be ready to put the fire out with a hose or large bucket of water after the bulk of foliage has burnt away and the tall flames are finished. There is no benefit in letting the top of the crown smoulder. If a clump has been left to grow for years without removing dead material, it is more important to put the fire out after the tall flames are done, to avoid singeing the top of the crown under all those hot embers - they wouldn't kill the grass, but they might do a bit of damage.

To cut down pampas conveniently, firmly tie the clump together at about chest height, so it's in a tight bundle, then use a chainsaw with a long bar, or a hedge trimmer to slice around the base; with a hand pruning saw or very sharp shears, cut out a small section at a time.
If the bundle is big, it's helpful if a second person stands on the other side and pulls it to open the way for the cutting tool.

The cuttings, with a bit of trampling down, make a good mulch-mat for your beds or muddy pathways.

In Your Garden Design

Not one for an intimate garden, these big beasts look good as architectural statements in coastal gardens or gravel areas. It looks great also planted alongside its sibling 'White Feather'; try them in groups with three of each colour. You can also use them for screening. With grasses as statuesque as these consider their texture and movement as part of your design. It is very good also to use them as a counterbalance to brilliant colours of plants like dahlias. You could also pick up the pink theme of these grasses elsewhere. Try partnering with our pretty pinks range in a nearby border, but keep separate otherwise the grasses will dominate.

Did You Know?

The genus name Cortaderia is direct from the Argentine Spanish word Cortadera - cutting - after the seriously sharp leaves, which are serrated.

The species is named after Friedrich Sello (1789b1831), a Prussian botanist who worked in Brazil from 1814 onwards. Who knows what discoveries he might have made, had he not drowned while swimming in the Rio Doce river, aged 42.

Pampas is a large geographic region in South America.