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!