Plant in full sun to light shade, but color is best out in full sun. It is drought resistant but looks better with occasional irrigation along the coast and needs it in inland and in desert gardens. This grass has proven hardy to below 10 degrees F and can be used in gardens down to USDA Zone 7. It spreads by short rhizomes and with time can colonize large areas if so desired and not contained, but its growth can be restricted by selective removal of rhizomes along the edge of the planting or by using a physical barrier (paving or plastic root barrier). Avoid over irrigating as it can lose its typically upright form and lie flat as though sat on. We like to cut this plant back once a year to tidy up the planting and typically do this sometime between when the new grow starts to emerge, often as early as late winter, through early summer. Don't be surprised that the newly emerging shoots are bright green; they will rapidly turn blue gray again as they mature. A great native grass used as an accent plant, in a container, or towards the back of the perennial border, within a meadow planting or at the base of a slope.

Leymus condensatus 'Canyon Prince' is a selection made by Santa Barbara Botanic Garden horticulturist Dara Emery from plants collected in 1968 by Ralph Philbrick, then director of the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, on Prince Island, a small rocky islet at the entrance to Cuyler Harbor on the north side of San Miguel Island in the Santa Barbara Channel Islands. There is speculation in Rick Darke's Encyclopedia of Grasses that this plant might be a natural hybrid between Leymus mollis and Leymus condensatus because this plant exhibits traits intermediary between these species, though Leymus mollis is not known to be naturally growing on San Miguel Island. The name for the genus is an anagram of Elymus, the name that this plant long was known by and current treatment by California botanists has returned it to its original name but not all are in agreement. At the time of this writing (2024) this plant is listed in the Jepson eFlora as being in the genus Elymus, while the Royal Botanic Garden Kew's database continues to use Leymus. The name Elymus is derived from the Greek word 'elyo' which means rolled-up or covered in reference to its grain being covered by the flower palea and lemma.

We listed this plant as a variety of Elymus when we first started growing it in 1989 and switched to calling it Leymus in 1994 after this anagram name was constructed for related grasses then designated distinct from the true Elymus. We also grew from 2009 to 2014 a taller form of this species we called Leymus condensatus 'Gaviota Gray'. Though we recognize that this plant's currently correct genus name should be Elymus, to avoid confusion for ourselves and customers we continue to list these plants as a Leymus. More information on this great grass can be found on the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden's Leymus condensatus 'Canyon Prince' Plant Introduction Page. 

The information about Leymus condensatus 'Canyon Prince' displayed on this web page is based on our research conducted in the nursery's horticultural library and from reliable online resources. We also include observations made about it as it grows in our nursery gardens and other gardens we have visited, as well how the crops have performed in containers in our nursery field. We will also incorporate comments we receive from others and welcome hearing from anyone with additional information, particularly if they can share cultural information that would aid others in growing this plant.