Molinia caerulea ssp. arundinacea 'Tears of Joy'

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Price:  £5.00 Notify me when this item is available Family:  Poaceae Main Season:  Summer Flower Colour:  Brown Leaf Colour:  Green Foliage:  Deciduous Position:  Sun Soil Type:  Good, moist, humus-rich Height:  1.2m to 1.8m (4' to 6') Peat Free?  Not yet Hardiness Guide:  RHS H7 minimum at least -20C Pot Size:  1.4L Availability:      None available at present. View our Pot Size guide:

New to us from a Dutch collector. Tall, arching stems bearing heavy heads of greyish flowers. 1.8m so far. Good soil in sun.

This form has made a substantial clump in it's first 3 years in the garden and puts on a spectacular show of arching flowers from June till mid-winter.  The clump of leaves grows to about 60cm tall and across, the flower stems get to about 1.8m tall and arch to a similar width.  Because of the arch the stems length of up to 2.5m is not noticed!

Molinia caerulea ssp. arundinacea 'Tears of Joy' has flowers of a intermediate type, fairly heavy but branched.  It is not as airy as 'Bergfreund' or 'Transparent', nor as dense as 'Windspiel'.  The foliage and stems are a slightly bluish green during summer and early autumn, as the temperature colls in autumn the stems start to turn a warm orange-buff and the leaves go clear yellow.  The seedheads are a bronze-buff.  'Tears of Joy' seems quite resistant to collapsing and has survived upright until February when other tall varieties has fallen around Christmas.

Introduced c. 2010 by Hans Mesker.