Muhlenbergia (Muhly)
at Digging Dog

Including Muhlenbergia capillaris and Muhlenbergia rigens

Muhlenbergia

Muhly

Named in honor of G. H. E. Muhlenberg, a botanist who specialized in grasses, this large, varied genus includes some of the most visually stunning and enduring ornamental grasses for today’s landscape.

Primarily native to arid range areas of the southern U.S. and Mexico, many Muhlenbergias boast not only arresting inflorescences and foliage, but an exceptional tolerance to heat, sun and drought, providing the soil is well drained, as well as abiding short amounts of dappled shade each day.

Muhlenbergia capillaris    

Pink Muhly

Holding their attraction for months, ethereal masses of airy flower panicles are imbued in vivid pinkish red tones, which age to a light buff. This soft-looking mist hovers atop a fine textured, semievergreen clump of glossy dark green foliage. With an unmatched vivacity, particularly when planted in drifts, the Pink Muhly will easily bridge the gap from a garden space into the native habitat.

Blooms September–early December.

Size: 3' high x 3' wide; hardy to zone 6.

Muhlenbergia capillaris (g-0057)
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Muhlenbergia capillaris ‘White Cloud’    

In an illuminated departure from the native species, the finely branched nearly transparent panicles spawn a white wispy haze along the upper reaches of sleek, dark green blades. With cloudlike inflorescences that brighten the landscape well after the first frosts, this tidy clumping Muhly is both stunning and stalwart and can be utilized as a specimen.

Blooms September – early December.

Size: 3' high x 3' wide; hardy to zone 6.

Muhlenbergia capillaris ‘White Cloud’ (G-0507)
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Muhlenbergia dumosa    

Bamboo Muhly

Noted for its extraordinary fine texture and striking resemblance to bamboo, this warm season grass conveys a lighthearted grace. Delicately branched, upright and arching supple stems and thin light green leaves define the billowy mass that forms a noninvasive clump, preferring occasional water while enduring deer, heat and drought.

Stirring in just about any breeze, the evergreen Bamboo Muhly hails from Arizona and southern Mexico, produces insignificant pale pink flowers and is destined to become an airy counterpoint to Yucca ‘Garland’s Gold’s bold blades or where winter’s are cold, an ethereal container subject.

Blooms May.

Size: 3'–6' high x 3'–4' wide; hardy to zone 7.

Muhlenbergia dumosa (G-0458)
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Muhlenbergia lindheimeri    

Lindheimer’s Muhly

Long, open Calamagrostis-like panicles are colored in muted purplish gray tones, aging to an antique silver that festoons the winter landscape. The fine textured, rounded clump of semi-evergreen, blue-gray foliage sends forth slender, perfect-for-cutting inflorescences on upright stems some 2 ft. above.

Whether headlined as a sophisticated specimen or massed, this stunning Muhlenbergia delivers tranquil hues and a tidy enduring visage.

Blooms September–December.

Size: 5' high x 2' wide; hardy to zone 7.

Muhlenbergia lindheimeri (G-0104)
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Muhlenbergia rigens    

Deer Grass

A long-time resident of California and other southwestern states, this semievergreen Muhlenbergia yields upright, thin and arrowlike silvery inflorescences reaching beyond the narrow, 18 in. high gray-green foliage. Creating a shimmery veiling effect in the landscape and adding pizzazz to dried arrangements, the reflective flowering stalks bend gracefully as they age.

Let Deer Grass weave its way around the contrasting horizontal form of Arctostaphylos ‘Vancouver Jade’, or superimpose it against Lobelia tupa.

Blooms September–December.

Size: 5' high x 4' wide; hardy to zone 7.

Muhlenbergia rigens (G-0036)
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