I fell in love with the Arizona/Mexico native ornamental grass, Muhlenbergia dumosa when the the late JC Raulston first brought it back from Yucca Do Nursery in 1992. This odd member of the genus muhlenbergia resembles a clumping bamboo unlike other members of the genus. For those non-connoisseurs of Latin, dumosa means “bushy”.
JC touted this Yucca Do collection from Northern Mexico as the most amazing ornamental grass he had ever encountered. JC distributed it to nurserymen, who introduced it into the trade, only to find out that it wasn’t winter hardy in most of North Carolina.
On a visit to the South Carolina Botanical Garden last year, we were shocked to see Muhlenbergia dumosa growing happily in their desert garden. It turned out that they were growing a new clone, collected from a higher elevation in Arizona, that had proved reliable in their Zone 7b climate. We were gifted a start of Mulhlenbergia dumosa ‘Patagonia’, which now resides in a couple of locations at JLBG. We’re very excited, and now look forward to having a cold winter to fully test its winter hardiness.
Would love to grow a hardy version in 7b Virginia. Grew some a few years ago that got killed by a cold winter in the mid single digits.