Mature size & growth rate

How big does Weeping Love Grass (Eragrostis curvula) get?

Also called weeping love grass, African love grass.

More about weeping love grass

About Weeping Love Grass

Eragrostis curvula · also called weeping love grass, African love grass · flowering

Weeping love grass is a vigorous, warm-season African grass with graceful, arching dark-green leaves and delicate, purplish-grey panicles in summer. Extremely heat- and drought-tolerant, it is widely used for erosion control, roadsides, and tough dry-garden applications. Its rapid establishment and prolific seeding make it invasive in some regions — check local guidance before planting.

Mature size: 60–120 cm tall; clumps spread 60–90 cm wide

Watch for — Poor establishment in shade: Fails to thrive under tree canopy or in low-light spots. Growth becomes open and the erosion-control mat function is lost. Always site in full, open sun.

Indoor size vs how big it gets in the wild

Weeping Love Grass stays fairly low but widens over time — it spreads into a bigger clump by offsets, runners or rhizomes rather than shooting upward. Indoors and in a pot, expect 60–120 cm tall. In the ground with no restriction it is a completely different plant — clumps spread 60–90 cm wide — which is why the pot, the light and the pruning matter so much for the size you actually end up with.

Size here is about width, not height: the plant builds an ever-wider clump or sends out plantlets and runners while staying relatively short.

Growth rate and years to mature

Weeping Love Grass is a fast grower. Realistically, expect two to four years from a young plant to a room-filling specimen in good light. Its feeding profile backs this up: generally not required. fertilising in fertile soils promotes excessive, floppy growth. on extremely poor, compacted soils used for revegetation, a single low-nitrogen slow-release application at planting can aid establishment only.

Want this turned into the right next pot at the right moment? The pot size calculator and the weeping love grass repotting guide cover when and how much to size up — pot size is one of the biggest levers on how fast weeping love grass grows.

How to keep weeping love grass smaller

You are not stuck with the maximum size. For weeping love grass specifically, these are the levers, in order of impact:

Divide the clump every year or two — splitting weeping love grass is the main way to control its spread and refresh it.
Remove runners, plantlets or offsets as they appear if you want it to stay a single tight clump.
Keep it slightly pot-bound; a snug pot naturally limits how wide the clump can get.

The keep-it-smaller method, step by step

Lift the whole plant. Slide weeping love grass out of its pot in spring when the clump has filled it.
Split the clump. Tease or cut the rootball into two or more sections, each with healthy roots and growth.
Repot one division. Put a single division back in the original pot to reset it to a smaller size; pot or give away the rest.
Remove offsets as they form. Through the year, detach new runners or pups to stop it spreading again.

How to grow weeping love grass bigger or faster

If you want it to fill the space sooner, push the conditions rather than hoping — for weeping love grass the accelerators are:

Give it a wider pot and let the clump fill it — width is exactly how this plant gets bigger.
Good light plus regular feeding maximises offset and runner production.
Leave plantlets and offsets attached and feed through the growing season for the fastest spread.

Light is almost always the ceiling. The weeping love grass light requirements page covers exactly how bright a spot it needs to grow at its potential instead of stalling.

When weeping love grass outgrows the room (or the pot)

"Too big" usually arrives as one of these signs for weeping love grass:

The clump bulging over the pot rim or splitting the pot — the cue to divide, not to find a bigger room.
A dense centre that goes bare or tired while the edges keep spreading.
Runners or offsets escaping across the shelf or into neighbouring pots.

If it is the pot rather than the room, it is a repotting job, not a goodbye — see the weeping love grass repotting guide. If you want more of this plant instead of a bigger one, the weeping love grass propagation guide turns prunings into new plants.

Weeping Love Grass size — frequently asked questions

How big does weeping love grass get?

Weeping Love Grass reaches 60–120 cm tall when grown indoors, and far larger where it grows unrestricted (clumps spread 60–90 cm wide). Size here is about width, not height: the plant builds an ever-wider clump or sends out plantlets and runners while staying relatively short.

Is weeping love grass slow or fast growing?

Weeping Love Grass is a fast grower. Expect two to four years from a young plant to a room-filling specimen in good light. Weeping Love Grass stays fairly low but widens over time — it spreads into a bigger clump by offsets, runners or rhizomes rather than shooting upward.

How long does weeping love grass take to reach full size?

Roughly two to four years from a young plant to a room-filling specimen in good light. Light, pot size and feeding move that timeline more than anything else.

How do I keep weeping love grass smaller?

Divide the clump every year or two — splitting weeping love grass is the main way to control its spread and refresh it. Remove runners, plantlets or offsets as they appear if you want it to stay a single tight clump. Keep it slightly pot-bound; a snug pot naturally limits how wide the clump can get.

How can I make weeping love grass grow bigger or faster?

Give it a wider pot and let the clump fill it — width is exactly how this plant gets bigger. Good light plus regular feeding maximises offset and runner production. Leave plantlets and offsets attached and feed through the growing season for the fastest spread.