Miscanthus giganteus... a magnificently useful plant.

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Four years ago I bought a pot of Miscanthus giganteus at a garden sale. It’s now a large well-established clump. It’s quite an attractive plant, a ‘poor man’s bamboo’ with the advantage that you can cut it right down in the spring before the new growth starts. It’s easy to propagate by hacking out roots with new growth in the spring, and grows on poor soils.
Last year when I cut down the old stems I realised they were strong enough to use as bean canes, and as they were about ten or twelve feet long they were ideal tied to string and posts.
I left the bean frame up all winter and was surprised this spring to find the canes were still in good condition. I’ve cut the old ones into smaller sections which make excellent pea sticks and canes to support peppers and aubergines.
I’ve got the ones I’ve cut down this year to use to make more frames for my climbing French beans.
Somebody on GoY said he’d read the plant didn’t survive temperatures below minus eight or ten, but our plant has survived minus 21C in 2008, and minus 18 in 2009/10, so it’s obviously hardier than they say.

• 29 May, 2010
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