Growing Gorgeous Grasses
Ornamental grasses are the perfect way to add texture and movement to a garden. While they look great all year, fall is the time when they really shine.
Mother Nature coaxed the evolution of a grass for every ecological niche: there are both evergreen and deciduous types, and varieties that grow in shade as well as sun. Plant breeders have made improvements on the work of Nature. Now there are grasses offering leaves of brilliant lemon yellow, calming powdery blues, cozy deep wine reds, tawny toffee browns and oranges, and some with stripes and some with splashes. There are wide and skinny blades to suit a range of texture needs. Their flowers range from soft bunny tail-like wands to velvety plumes to charming dangly oat-esque seed heads to spikes that look like a glistening explosion of fireworks when they are backlit in the low autumn sun.
Many grasses offer fall color. Many offer drought resilience. Whether you need a short little tuft or a tower fountain, include some grasses in your garden and enjoy the sound of grass rustling in the wind.
Maintenance Tips
The best time to plant grasses is fall, when they are readily available in nurseries. You can also plant in the spring. Evergreen grasses should not be cut back! Deciduous grasses are best tidied up in February just when new growth starts. If your grass needs a boost, fertilize in March or April.
Here are some of our favorites.
Evergreen grasses for sun
Carex testacea, buchanini – Bronze sedges
Festuca – Blue Fescue
Helictotrichon – Blue Oat Grass
Evergreen grasses for shade
Acorus – Sweet Flag
Carex Evercolor series –Everest, EverGlow, Eversheen, Everillo, Everoro, or Feather Falls
Lirope spicata & muscari – Lilyturf & Mondo Grasses
Ophiopogon ‘Nigrescens’ – Black Mondo Grass
Deciduous grasses for sun
Anemanthele
Calamagrostis – Feather Reed Grass
Imperata ‘Red Baron’ – Japanese Blood Grass
Molina caerula – Moor Grass
Panicum – Switch Grass
Pennisetum – Fountain Grass
Deciduous grasses for shade
Carex elata Bowles Golden – Golden Sedge
Chasmanthium latifolium – Sea Oats
Deschampsia cespitosa – Tufted Hair Grass
Hakonechloa macra – Japanese Forest Grass (several cultivars)
Watch this video with Tobey Nelson to see some of these grasses and learn more about using them in your garden!