Pampas Grass v. Sea Oats

Personal pampas grass growing regaling to follow, but first let me tell you about Tybee Island’s “grass.” (No, don’t go there. I’m sure they have that kind too…)  Of course I’m talking about sea oats.  Green in the spring, this quintessential dune vegetation is ripe by late summer– and beautiful, is it not?
Sea oats are not lawn grasses (dune grasses to be sure, but not Bermuda or even St. Augustine, the lawn grass of the low country) but rather a grass more similar to barley, wheat, or rye, although inedible to my knowledge. Sea oats have a massive root system capable of holding the island together in hurricane storm surges and tropical winds.

Pampas grass can also be found in the Georgia low country, and of course on Tybee Island. I first started trying to grow pampas grass when I lived in Montana. I knew the winters would be too harsh, so thought big ol’ pots of the grass could be dragged indoors and over-wintered (September-June :-/). I hadn’t figured on the 400-head of mule deer that call the inside of Helena, Montana city limits home. Deer, apparently, like pampas grass, too. I tried to grow it again when relocated to Amarillo, Texas, but I think end-of-season plants were sub-standard, and then cooler temps set in before the root system could develop.

But last year? Good stock, well-prepared hole-in-the-ground, early-ish start on the season, and voila!

So mine doesn’t look like the stock photo…yet.  (See previous note about delated gratification.)