Muhly Grass
Muhlenbergia capillaris
Fine, wiry clumps that come into their own as the rest of the border winds down — provided the ground drains.
- Type
- Grass · Perennial
- Botanical family
- Mixed / other
- Foliage color
- Green · Silver and gray
- Sunlight
- Full sun
- Feeding
- Gentle all-organic
- Frost tolerant
- Yes
- Flowering
- September
- Apr–Sep Spring Growth
- Sep–Nov Flowering
- Nov–Dec Growing
- Dec–Dec Winter Dormancy
- Jan–Apr Winter Dormancy
- Plant spacing
- 2 ft 11 in
- In-row spacing
- 2 ft 11 in
- Between rows
- 3 ft 8 in
- Square-foot density
- Not suited to SFG
- Root system
- A dense fibrous mat
- Working depth
- 8–24 in
- Can reach
- 5 ft down where the soil allows
- Spread
- 3–6 ft across, about 1–2× the width of the plant
- Shallowest pot
- 12 in of soil
Thousands of fine roots knit the top of the soil into a turf, which is what holds a bank together and what makes an established clump so hard to lift. Prairie grasses send a few roots far below the mat as well.
The habit is Muhly Grass’s own; the figures are what that habit usually comes to at this size, not a measurement of this species. Roots follow the soil either way: a compacted pan, a high water table or heavy clay stops them well short of any of it, and deep open ground lets them go further.
Rudbeckia, Salvia, Agave, Sedum
Grasses, like this one.
The Cottage Garden Companion — the gardener's herbarium at cottagegardencompanion.com