Three in a Row

Apparently a row of three grasses in the garden is a recipe for discord. Two will exclude the third. They won't play together. They're mean that way. I know this because I want a harmonious, structured look in my garden and it's not happening with some feather reed grasses and some blue fescues.

See what I mean?

Three Karl Foerster feather reed grasses grow against the wall and every year only two send up reedy flower stalks. The third one on the right just doesn't.

This drives my tidy, symmetrical design impulses bonkers.

Right across from these balky grasses is a mulched area where I put three fountainy fescue grasses in pots and lined them up.

And once again, two have sent up sprays of golden flower stalks lit by the sun, the third one on the left hasn't. It managed one thin reed and no more.

Why can't I get three of a kind all looking the same? Why do two bloom and one doesn't? What am I doing wrong, besides expecting living plants to all behave the same way and meet my ideas of rigid conformity?

I'm going to have to stop planting things in rows of three. I don't even know why I do that.