Hakone Grass

I'm open-minded about growing any grass that I don't have to worry about mowing or performing any other excessive maintenance on. I haven't tried a ton of ornamental grasses yet but plan on planting more and more types as time goes by. Thus my interest in Marie Iannotti's article on Hakone grass. Not much worry about maintenance here: About's Gardening Guide describes Hakone grass as a "clump forming grass that grows excruciatingly slowly." That's my kind of torment!

The only aspect of growing Hakone grass that seems a bit tricky is getting the lighting right. Hakone grass is supposed to have gold leaves with green stripes. But according to Marie, three things can go wrong with this scenario:

1. With too much sun in hot regions, "the leaves can bleach out to a pale yellow."
2. "But it can lose its stripes in partial shade, becoming all gold...."
3. Finally, "it turns a lime green in full shade."

I don't know about you, but I'm still willing to give this chameleon a try. At worst, I might have to experiment a bit until I get the lighting right for Hakone grass. It beats mowing any day!