Purple Fountain Grass
Cenchrus x advena ‘Rubrum’ · a purple fountain grass
A showy grass with burgundy leaves and arching plumes that open purple in midsummer and fade to sandy pink by fall, perfect in pots and hot, dry beds. Unlike ordinary fountain grass it rarely self-seeds. It isn't frost-hardy, so it's grown as an annual in most of the country.
- Mature size
- 3.5 × 3 ft
- 1.1 × 0.9 m, tall × wide
- Hardiness
- Zones 9a–11b
- USDA
- Sun
- Full sun
- Water
- Dry
- Blooms
- Jul–Oct
Purple Fountain Grass at its mature size
A mature Purple Fountain Grass grows 3 to 5 feet tall and 2 to 4 feet wide.
Drawn to scale beside a 5 ft 9 in person. With VeraScape, you see it at this size in your own yard.
Typical mature size, unpruned. Sources: San Marcos Growers, The Tree Center.
Through the year
What Purple Fountain Grass looks like month by month in a typical zone 6–7 garden.
In leaf · Nov–Jun
Fountain of narrow arching burgundy leaves, no plumes.
In flower · Jul–Oct
Soft rosy-burgundy bottlebrush plumes arching above the leaves.
Growing Purple Fountain Grass
- Grows well in
- The Northeast, the Southeast, the Midwest, the Plains and Mountain West, the desert Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and California.
- Growth rate
- Fast
- Good for
- Drought tolerant and fast growing
- Leaves
- Dies back in winter
- Native to
- Garden selection (Africa, the Middle East)
Spacing
VeraScape spaces plants so their grown canopies just touch. For Purple Fountain Grass, that’s about 3 ft apart, center to center.
Place a row in your own yard and VeraScape spaces them at their mature width, so you can see whether they’ll crowd the walk.
See Purple Fountain Grass in your yard before you dig
Visualize it at its true size, alongside the rest of your design.
Other fountain grasses
Fountain GrassPurple Fountain GrassAll drawn to the same scale.