Pennisetum alopecuroides 'Black Beauty'

Chinese Fountain Grass Poaceae

If your borders are looking a little too respectable, ‘Black Beauty’ is here to sort things out. This striking selection, introduced through Glen Chantry Nursery, produces a fountain of arching green foliage topped with exceptionally dark purple-black, bottlebrush-like flower heads. These emerge in summer and deepen in colour as the season progresses, bringing a deliciously gothic touch to the late-summer border. Plant it alongside pink salvias, silver-leaved perennials or anything pale enough to make those inky plumes really pop. The flowers are excellent for cutting, while the drying seed heads provide plenty of autumn and winter interest. Give it sunshine and moisture-retentive but well-drained soil, and resist the temptation to plant it somewhere that spends winter impersonating a pond. A grass with attitude, and rather more than a passing resemblance to a feather duster after a midnight makeover.

Nomenclature: Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Black Beauty’ is the established horticultural name. Following the merger of Pennisetum into Cenchrus, it may also be encountered as Cenchrus alopecuroides ‘Black Beauty’.

• Hardiness: approximately H4 (around -10 to -5°C); provide a sheltered, well-drained position
• Height: 90–120 cm in flower
• Spread: 60–90 cm
• Flowers: July–October