GLORIOUS GRASSES

If you are thinking about adding grasses to your garden, this is a great time to go to the nursery and check out the selection.  Grasses are wonderful in late summer and early fall. Grasses are beautiful backlit in our low seasonal light and add a wistful appearance to the end of summer.

Grasses look best when they are planted in multiples and amid other perennials in an informal landscape. They’re not so great with lots of formal shrubs or hedges. But, all rules are meant to be broken, if done well, as in Piet Oudolf’s Walled Garden at Scampston Hall in Yorkshire.

Contrary to popular thought, grasses are not always drought-tolerant. Many grasses’ native environments are along waterways. The good thing is that they don’t need a lot of water; just a little bit regularly.  Read your plant tag for watering requirements.

Here are some grasses that do well in our climate:

Carex testacea (Orange New Zealand Sedge) – This isn’t really a grass but a sedge. Fine-textured, mounding plant with green to orange colors.  Form is cascading and plant reaches about 18” tall.  Needs regular water.

Helictotrichon sempervirens (Blue Oat Grass) – Blue-gray foliage that reaches about 24” tall.  Likes a little bit of water through-out the year to look its best.  Helictotrichon ‘Pendula’ has a lot of flowers which hang, hence the name.

Melinus nerviglumis (Ruby Grass) – another fine-textured grass but this grass has light green foliage.  Produces spikelets of light red to purple in late summer and turns white as it ages. Nice round form; reaches 24” tall. Needs summer water.  Looks best in a drought-tolerant garden.

Miscanthus sinensis (Japanese Silver Grass) – Large, clumping grass with upright leaves.  Panicles with coppery flower spikelets about 12” above foliage. About 4’ tall.  Needs water until established.  Many cultivars with different sizes and colors: M.s. ‘Adagio’ is dwarf (2-3’ tall) with pink panicles and M.s. ‘Variegatus’ has parallel white stripes on leaves, grows 4-5’ tall.

Pennisetum x advena (Purple Fountain Grass) – This is a grass that most gardeners are familiar with. Pennisetum x advena ‘Rubrum’ (Red Fountain Grass) is dark red-purple-brown (!), upright plant that gets about 3’ tall.  I saw a grouping of three in front of a sage green house – looked really nice.  Little water needed after establishment.

Stipa arundinacea (Pheasant’s Tail Grass) – This is a particular favorite of mine. Starts green early in spring then turns gold/orange has it ages.  About 18” tall.  Likes a little bit of regular water.