An ornamental, sculptural plant used in some gardens to add height and visual effect. Although it is a grass it can be quite beautiful in the right setting. It grows in clumps to about 3m (10ft) tall, and steadily expands in girth, with each clump getting gradually larger over the years.
The green grass leaves are long, delicate and have sharp edges. This is a natural defence against grazing in its native habitat, but for the domestic gardener, it means the plant is a danger to passing children and to the unprotected gardener attempting to trim the leaves.
When it flowers, the tall, bushy stems are quite beautiful. Tall, inch-thick stems carrying thousands of tiny, fluffy, silvery-grey flowers, reaching high into the air. These tall, elegant stems are used in flower arrangements and can appear visually stunning.
C. selloana is native to south America where it grows wild on the pampas - hence the name. The pampas, according to Wiki, are "the fertile South American lowlands that include the Argentine provinces of Buenos Aires, La Pampa, Santa Fe, and Córdoba, most of Uruguay, and the southernmost end of Brazil, Rio Grande do Sul."
Wiki goes on to add that it seeds prolifically and is in some places regarded as an invasive weed. In New Zealand and South Africa the plant is reportedly banned from sale and propagation. Wiki helpfully adds that burning the grass clump will not prevent return.
StrawberryFrog confirms the 'invasive weed' status of South African pampas grass. "Pampas grass is indeed officially regarded as an invasive weed in South Africa. My memory, and a quick google search, confirms it.
Apparently, if you see a pampas grass in the front garden of a UK house, it indicates that swingers live in the house. I never heard this rumour before researching this writeup but, well, there it is. The following guide might help if you are not a swinger, but move into a house bearing the tell-tale C. selloana in the front garden.
Removing a clump of pampas grass
This is the real point of this writeup. I have had cause over the last few weeks to remove two large, mature specimens of this magnificent plant. One in my own garden, (about 2m diameter), the other in the garden of my next-door neighbour (only 1m diameter). The plant which grew in my own garden was by far the larger of the two, and the more difficult to remove. I began with my own plant, whereas it would have been easier to learn appropriate techniques on the smaller plant.
Prior to attempting removal, I searched the web for advice on how to get rid of these invasive, prolific yet strangely beautiful grasses. The most common advice seemed to be burning. But wiki says that does not work, while the proximity of the grasses to houses seemed to preclude the method.
In terms of timing, the first plant took most of a weekend to remove, as I was not sure how to go about it and it was pretty big. The second plant took under two hours, as I had previously worked out an efficient way of doing things. And, of course it was a smaller clump. So here, for your pleasure and delectation is a step-by step guide to getting rid of these invasive weeds.
Method
- Trim leaves and flowering stems
- Remove top part of clump
- Remove stems and roots
- Dig out deep roots
Tools required (essential)
- gloves
- shears to trim leaves
- lopping shears (with wide jaws and long leverage)
- Pickaxe
- Large space to put discarded vegatable matter
Tools required (optional)
The first part is easy: use a powered hedge trimmer ( or hand shears) to remove all the fronds and grassy leaves from the outside of the clump. This part of the process requires protection on hands, arms and legs, as the leaves will cause deep scratches on any exposed skin. Use loppers or heavy-duty secateurs to remove the tall flower stems.
This step will take only 10 - 15 minutes, and leaves a rather ugly clump of densely packed stems, roots and half-rotting vegetable matter amid the debris of leaves and flowering stems. Clear away the leaves and other trimmings, as the next step will produce a lot of vegetation and you'll need plenty of space around the plant to work effectively.
The second step involves some sustained hard work. Select a point about a foot (half a metre) from the ground and aim to slice the clump across at that height. I tried saws, hedge trimmers and other tools, but found the best approach is to work at it with a set of sharp, heavy-duty lopping shears. Just go at the plant snipping away with the shears, steadily extending the slice into the body of the plant. If need be, approach from two or three entry points, all at the same height until each slice meets in the middle.
The outer edges of the plant are made up of thick stems which are loosely connected to the rest of the clump. These can be cut away with lopping shears. If the stems fall away, then simply throw them onto the rapidly-growing pile of discarded vegetable matter.
Deeper inside the plant, the different parts of it are tangled together and it holds together, even when the stems have been cut through.
The inside of the clump is made up of flying roots, each only a millimetre or two thick and easy to cut through, interspersed with thick (25 - 30mm diameter) stems. Some of these are rotting and soft; some are healthy and strong. However, even the healthy stems are not too woody: they are quite easy to cut through, but need a robust pair of lopping shears to cut through them in one snip. In the end I used two sets of lopping shears. One with narrow jaws, which went quickly through the roots, while a second pair with large jaws and long leverage was used whenever I encountered a thick stem.
I was not too scientific about it, Each snip comprised the following cycle: Open jaws of shears, thrust into the clump and snip the jaws closed: Repeat. Eventually, the top half of the clump will loosen, until it is holding on by only a few stems and roots. Push the top clump over and identify where it is still attached. Snip through those and when it finally comes loose, roll the heavy body away from your work area. It will hold together, but can be broken up fairly easily to reduce the weight and make it more manageable.
You should now be left with a near-solid mass of stems, roots, and decaying vegetable matter which is fixed firmly into the ground by the roots. You will probably have noticed by now that the plant is made up of a series of thick stems surrounded by the flying roots.
The third stage of the process can now begin. Again, this is another hour or so of sustained hard work, so this might be a good time to take a break for lunch and take a long drink of water.
This stage involves digging out each of the separate clumps. I found the pick to be the most useful tool here.
A note on pickaxe safety. A pickaxe will cut through almost anything if swung hard enough. That includes roots and concrete, but it also includes flesh and bones. Steel-toed workboots are helpful, but do not protect shins and ankles. More sensible is careful use of the pick. Swing the pick so that it makes contact with the ground or the plant at the end of the swing. However, stand with legs apart so that, should the swing go wrong, then the business end will pass safely between your spread legs. Second, if you are tired or fatigued (or under the influence of alcohol or drugs), then stop using the pick.
I adopted two techniques. First was to use the blade of the pick to cut underneath the stems, loosening them from below. This involved swinging the pick underarm, finishing the stroke parallel with the ground, at the edge of the clump and then levering upwards to loosen the stems.
The second technique was to swing the pick overarm vertically downwards into the clump, and then use leverage to break stems, roots and other fibres. A combination of these two techniqes is used to loosen and remove all the stems, roots and other fibres lying above the soil. For a small plant this stage can be quite fast -- 30 minutes or so -- but bigger plants take longer.
The final stage is to swing the pick into the ground to remove the base roots. Fortunately, the roots are not deep, so digging down to 8 inches 200mm seems to be enough to remove all the hard, gnarly roots from the ground.
Once the plant has been cleared, all that remains is to clear up and remove the vegetable material. There will be a lot of it.