Inland Sea Oats

It's August so the seeds of the so called River, Upland, Inland or Northern Sea Oats (Casmanthium latifolium) are starting to mature. Decision time for tidy gardeners. This lovely native grass enjoys some shade or even mostly shade & a moist environment although in shade it will tolerate dryish soil.
The most attractive aspect of this perennial plant are it's drooping seed heads which sway in the slightest breeze. 

The copious amount of seeds produced makes some gardeners nervous and in damp soil the seedlings can be a problem if you don't want, well,  a sea of sea oats! The easy solution to this is to cut the seed heads before they hit the ground. They make great dried arrangements either by themselves or with other dried material. Do strip the leaves as these can be messy later on.

If you want the colony just cut back in February as advised in the link below
http://www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=CHLA5