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Instead, they are focused on combating the spread of a select group dubbed “the evil 25,” including fountain grass, tree of heaven and Spanish broom.

Many people opted to plant fast-growing non-native grasses such as fountain grass on the hills around Malibu, to try to stabilize the soils.

Fortnight lilies and kangaroo paw add height, while dwarf rosemary, feathery cassia, dwarf bottlebrush, sun-loving gaura, red fountain grass and other miscellaneous grasses add texture.

Some of the most beautiful, like purple fountain grass, don’t last the winter in our climate.

“Make the narrow places wide and the rough places smooth,” Stevens told the group of about 50 people, joking that it was biblical language for work that mostly amounted to pulling clumps of fountain grass.