You know it's been a mild dry winter when...

...the plumes of ornamental grasses stand unscathed 'til spring.

Below, a variety of Miscanthus sinensis or Japanese Maiden Grass, with a clump of Pennisetum alopecuroides or Fountain Grass in the foreground. In wetter/snowier years, the Miscanthus is a gala of plumes throughout the fall but would look battered by now. (Pennisetums are short and have nowhere to topple.)


I actually took these pics in early February, but the weather remained positively balmy anyways.
In the same garden, a grouping of Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' or Feather Reed Grass (below) are also miraculously intact. This type of grass is very straight and narrow so it would look a little funny standing alone. It doesn't get as big as Miscanthus, so a mass planting forms a delicate wavy screen rather than a spectacular ooh-ah garden feature. We all have our place.


Most fall-blooming grasses should be sheared back into hedge-hogs by now, so the new growth can emerge unfettered.