I never paid the deserved attention to grasses but in recent years I’ve been fascinated for some gardens that included grasses for movement. Movement is an important aspect of any landscape design, along with others such as color and texture. Nothing better to add some movement like the feathers and they are easily divided to create more plants. This article focus on How to divide Fountain grass ‘Rubrum’ (Pennisetum advena ‘Rubrum’).
So when I went to a garden center and saw this Fountain grass (Pennisetum advena ‘Rubrum’ or Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’) I had to give it a chance.
I’m passionate about plant propagation and the first thing I thought was to divide it. It is very easy and I’m writing this post to show you step by step how to divide Fountain grass.
They grow in clumps and, when you see a plant that grows this way, there is nothing better than split the clump in several individual plants.
I did that in the end of Spring when the plant is growing vigorously.
Lift the plant
I lift the plant from the pot and with the help of a shovel I cut the root ball.
Cut the root ball
As this is a small plant I only cut in two pieces, having a collateral small division (in the middle of next picture) that I will test and see how it goes.
Plant the divisions
After I got the rootball separated I planted them in separate pots as we do with any other plant.
Grasses typically like well drained soil, they are drought tolerant so we need to take that in consideration adding some grit to the compost.
Give them a good soak after planting and they are now ready to grow. Let’s see how they grow during the summer…
