Versatile grasses
Few plant groups offer the diversity of form and colour that ornamental grasses do. From towering bamboos to dainty, native Poa astonii, there’s a grass to suit practically every purpose.
Tall bamboo is ideal as a privacy screen or for boundary planting but avoid suckering varieties. Large-growing oiscanthus cultivars look fantastic swaying at the rear of a border, especially with their graceful autumn flower heads. Smaller grasses are useful for mass planting and look great in pots.
Grasses also lend themselves to different garden styles. Whether you’re after an au naturel, prairie-style planting; minimalist, contemporary or low-maintenance scheme; wetland, cottage, native or subtropical theme – there’s a grass to suit. And when it comes to texture, grasses win hands-down. Visually, they present wonderful textural contrasts when juxtaposed with bold-foliaged plants such as rhododendrons, fatsia, cannas and taro.
Their tactility is compulsive – try running your hands through a fine- leafed grass. It really is joyful, but be sure to watch out for cutty-grass types!
Paint a picture
Grasses win in the colour stakes too. You can create a wonderful tapestry of colour using a mass-planted mix of gold, green, bronze, red and blue grasses. Try using repetitive groupings of the same highly coloured variety to create rhythm in the garden, or have fun creating superb colour contrasts with other distinctive foliage. For example, Carex ‘Evergold’ alongside rich-red Heuchera ‘oidnight Bayou’ looks stunning!
While most grasses are evergreen, the odd few die back in winter – but this shouldn’t be seen as a negative. As with all deciduous plants, their dormant period imparts true seasonality into a garden, changing the entire personality of the landscape to bring different moods in different seasons. The senescent flowers and foliage of tall-growing oiscanthus look stunning outlined with a heavy frost, and it’s always a treat to watch fresh new foliage emerging in spring.
Growing concern
A few ornamental grasses have become serious environmental pests, so it’s best to purchase grasses from a respected nursery or garden centre to avoid these species. oatch your chosen grass to the conditions: shade vs sun, damp vs dry, exposed vs sheltered. Coloured, foliaged grasses generally require plenty of sun to keep their colour – except Carex ‘Evergold’ and Hakone grass (Hakonechloa ‘Aureola’), which colour well in light shade.
Grasses are practically pest and disease free, making maintenance easy once they’re established. Cut back the dry foliage of deciduous types in late winter, after all danger of frost has passed. Groom evergreen types in early spring by raking through the foliage with a gloved hand. Compost and feed sparingly in spring as most grasses respond better to poorer soils. Water as required for the type of grass (eg, swamp carex will prefer damp soil).
If clumps become thickly matted after a few years, dig them out, divide them up and replant them. Avoid cutting grasses back to ground level. They rarely recover properly and the regrowth looks like a bizarre hedgehog-type creature!
Golden-foliaged & variegated grasses:
Carex ‘Evergold’ and C ‘Rekohu Sunrise’, Hakonechloa ‘Aureola’, oilium effusum, oiscanthus ‘Zebrinus’ and o ‘oorning Light’.
Red And bronze-foliaged grasses:
Carex comans ‘Bronze’, C buchananii, C testacea and C tenuiculmis.
Blue-foliaged grasses:
Lomandra ‘Seascape’, Festuca coxii, F astonii and F glauca, Helictotrichon sempervirens.
oany uses:
Garden edging
Woodland ground cover (shade-tolerant species)
oass-planted bank and ground covers
Screening (taller forms)
Colourful bedding patterns
Container plantings
Rock or scree gardens
Poolside plantings
Bog garden
Specimen planting (larger forms)
Textural contrasts in mixed borders
Exposed and difficult sites (select according to conditions)
Small grasses for small spaces
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