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Re: Pinyanensis, Pingyanensis, Pingyangensis

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2018 3:15 pm
by David
Brad, I thought you might want to see the virella.

Re: Pinyanensis, Pingyanensis, Pingyangensis

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 12:50 am
by needmore
Looks tiny next to some of your other species!

Re: Pinyanensis, Pingyanensis, Pingyangensis

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 3:40 am
by David
I can't tell any difference between virella, and rubro shoots. I took some pictures this year with the shoots side by side. I'll post them when I find them. Their leaves are similar, but their growth habits are different at this point. Virella is shorter than rubro, more shrub like with an arching culm. It is also slower growing than rubro. Its been in the ground for 6 years, and is not spreading much. Not as hardy as rubro, top burns more.

Re: Pinyanensis, Pingyanensis, Pingyangensis

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2018 2:43 pm
by needmore
Sounds like I got the wrong plant, it is supposed to be hyper-hardy and similar to Atrovaginata and it is neither.

Re: Pinyanensis, Pingyanensis, Pingyangensis

Posted: Sat Jun 06, 2020 11:41 pm
by Alan_L
I'm replying to David and Brad's most recent posts here about Ph. virella -- which I got from Brad. Both my rubro and virella are in similar situations -- both topkilled a couple years ago after a very dry fall and some cold snaps that winter. Both are reestablished now, and putting up decent-sized culms (1" is my lower limit for "decent").

At first emergence I would agree with David that the shoots are very similar, but to me the virella shoots get a lot more brown/tawny than the rubro ones do -- rubro seems darker. Could be that in my garden the rubro is in a shadier corner while the virella gets more sun, but there aren't too many parts of my yard that I'd consider "full sun" these days.

Virella ran like crazy last year. Since this was an escaped rhizome that not only saved the plant but ran in pretty much the perfect place, I didn't worry about pruning last year... so that was 2 years of no pruning. There's a large network of virella rhizomes in my small remaining lawn area now, with some small shoots coming up at least 20' (6m) from the existing culms (and probably into my neighbor's yard -- ack!)

The culms are less droopy than other species I've grown, but it's hard to judge until they get 2-3 years of leaves on them.

They did both start shooting at about the same time for me though -- my last 2 to shoot. Virella a little behind rubro, even though it gets more sun.

Not sure if any of this helps, but just wanted to add my observations.