When is the best time to dig up and move Pampas grass as well as Zebra Grass? Also, is it OK to divide these grasses while moving them? Thank you so much!

I make no secret about the fact that I really like ornamental grasses, they are just wonderful plants in the garden. They are low maintenance plants that can provide a great deal of interest to your garden all year round.

In the winter months, when everything is dormant, the stalks of the ornamental grasses sway in the breeze and provide a beautiful soft beige color. They provide height and texture for the winter garden. And they make great winter shelter for the birds in your garden.

It’s a rare occasion that I will label a plant low maintenance, but ornamental gasses really fit that bill. The only time that you need to do any thing for your ornamental grasses is in February. As the soil temperatures start to warm, your grasses will begin to send up new shoots. So before that happens, you need to remove the growth from last year.

Cutting your ornamental grasses is easy if you have the right equipment. I use a pair of super sharp shears manufactured by ARS to cut my grasses back. Remove the old growth as close to the ground as possible to make way for new shoots. The old foliage can be added to your compost pile.

To facilitate cleanup of the stalks you cut off, you can use good old-fashioned duct tape. Pull the duct tape around the outside of the clump to hold the top together and then cut the stalks off at the plant base.

When your grasses get really big, you might need to get a friend to help, and you could pull out the power equipment, a chainsaw and a chipper shredder will make short work of well established, large clumps of grasses.

To propagate your ornamental grasses, you can use one of two methods. The easiest way to get a new start off an existing ornamental grass clump is to use a pickaxe to chop off pieces of the root system. It might not look like much, but with a little water and fertilizer, a little clump will grow into a substantial plant by season’s end.

You can propagate smaller clumps of grasses by digging the entire plant and dividing the root system. You can use an old hacksaw blade to cut the root clump or even an old bread knife from your kitchen.