February is often a month of cutting back and pruning plants for those of us with landscapes and gardens to maintain. The landscape is generally pretty drab with muted colors this time of year. There are exceptions of course such as the attractive reddish colors of 'Firepower' Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica 'Firepower').
'Firepower' Heavenly Bamboo on February 12, 2012
Benjamin Courtyard Garden on July 26, 2012
In February, landscapes that were ablaze with colorful leaves and flowers last summer are just mere vestiges of their summer glory. The colorful, exuberant late July garden becomes a much more monochromatic, sedate garden in February.
The Benjamin Courtyard Garden on February 12, 2012
Pampas Grass on January 5, 2012
While the Pampas Grass (Cortedaria selloana) still looked fairly attractive on January 5th of this year, it was definitely taking a beating from the weather by the first part of February. We tried using a pair of light weight, high quality hedge shears to trim off the unattractive ends of the Pampas Grass leaves. This left a relatively stiff, bottle brush type of appearance to the plants.
Growing up in Kansas, one of the heartland states that has the largest remnant of the United States once vast prairies, I was familiar with a plant called Leavenworth Eryngium. The flower/seed head of this prairie plant is shaped like a bottle brush or miniature pineapple and is colored a fabulous intense dark purple color during a certain stage of its life cycle. The trimmed Pampas Grass had a similar texture and shape, although on a much larger and grander scale. It seemed a natural to me to color the Pampas Grass a dark purple as a personal tribute to this wonderful western plant. To this day, I still remember the exact location of my first encounter with Leavenworth Eryngium on a hillside with a spectacular view of the valley below on the former Fletcher ranch in the Osage cuestas of Kansas.
We secured permissions and support to go ahead with my plan to paint the trimmed Pampas Grass a dark purple color, although there were certainly plenty of questions such as 'Why do you want to do that?', 'Why purple?' and 'Is that normal?' and the restriction of making sure that it was not the school color of a competitor of the Terps sports teams that we would be playing. Luckily, Leavenworth Eryngium purple was not Duke blue; however, I still not convinced that a sports team or school can own a color that plants such as Leavenworth Eryngium have owned for millions of years.
In our climate, the Pampas Grass and the 'Sweet Caroline' Hardy Hibiscus that was painted the light purple color are both perennials. The above ground portions of these plants die back during the winter; however, they will send up new shoots from the base of the plants as the weather warms up in late spring. We will cut these plants back to the ground in just a few weeks to allow for the new growth to emerge unimpeded by last years growth. The bright colors will be dramatic, but a short lived experience.
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More pictures of the purple Pampas Grass can be seen in a Flickr photo album.
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Hopefully the dichotomy of the painted plants and the nearby natural plants will spark an interest and questions from some of those that walk through, but yet often don't see the landscape. We are hoping that this unexpected landscape will brighten someone's day during the short cold days of winter, much as a smile or shared laughter can warm the heart. If not, at least we had fun painting the Pampas Grass purple!
